:

apply with slight modifications to the whole country lying in the Central Basin Height of fences, 5 feet; average size of fields enclosed, 20 acres; cost of plank fencing, per 1,000 feet, $50; rails per thousand, $20, except for cedar and chestnut, which delivered cost from $50 to $70 per thousand; cost of splitting rails per thousand, $10; cost of splitting rails and putting up per thousand, $15; two-thirds of the openings to fields have gates, one-third bars; average cost per hundred yards of worm fence, $9; with cedar or chestnut rails, $18 to $20; average cost per hundred yards of post and rail fence, $20; average cost per hundred yards of plank fence, $17.50; average cost per hundred yards of stone fence, $100; annual repairs to fences other than cedar, chestnut or stone, are one rail to the panel per annum; oak, hickory, poplar, walnut, chestnut and cedar are the woods used for fencing. Chestnut and cedar are worth two and a half times as much as the most durable of the others. Cedar and chestnut rails will last fifty years, the rails made from the other woods enumerated, will last from eight to fifteen years. A few farmers keep their fence corners clean, the majority, however, suffer them to grow up in briers and bushes. About one-third of the stock of the district runs at large, and subsists during the summer upon the highway pasturage. The reading, progressive farmers favor a stock law. The expense of fencing out other people's stock is felt to be onerous. Mr. Allman thinks that soiling stock would be profitable; that one acre mowed and fed will furnish as much provender as three where stock are turned in to graze, and tramp out the herbage. The tenant has to do more fencing under the present law to protect his crop.

The number of two-horse cast iron plows used in this district, containing 200 farms, is 300, at an average cost of $12 each; the number of cast iron one-horse plows, 900, at an average cost each of $6; the number of wrought iron one-horse plows used is 2,000, at a cost each of $3.50; subsoil plows used 25; hill-side plows 10; cultivators 75; walking cultivators 2; buggy plows 2; harrows used made in the county 150; harrows used not made in the county 75; number of rollers used in the district 20, at a cost each of $5; reapers 20, at a cost each of $225; mowers 25, cost each $125; horse rakes 25, cost each $10; straw-cutters 100, cost from $5 to $40 each; six-horse wagons 20, cost each $175; four-horse wagons 51, cost each $125; two-horse wagons 110, cost each $100; spring wagons, one-horse, 30, cost $125; ox wagons 75, cost $75; carts 25, cost $50; pleasure carriages 10, cost $250; buggies 100, cost $200; wheelbarrows 50, cost $5. The mowers and reapers are usually combined.

In regard to mechanical industries, the following statistics will give the number of establishments in the district for 1873: carpenter shops, 5; hands employed, 10; wagon shops, 7; number of wagons made annually, 28; plow shops, 6; number of plows made, 150; sawmills, water-power 1; steam, 2; lumber, mostly poplar made, sells at $17.50 per thousand feet; blacksmith shops, 6; hands employed, 12; grist mills, corn, 3; wheat, 2; wool-carding machines, 1; tanneries, 2; value of products, $2,500; shoe shops, 3; value of products, $3,000; hands employed, 9; wages per day, $1.50; harness and saddle shops, 2; value of products, $3,000; carriage and buggy factories, 1; value of products, $1,500; hands employed, 2; wages, $1.50 per day; handlooms, 25: value of products, $750. A few ladies manufacture superior blankets, jeans, linsey, etc., on the old hand-looms. During the late war nearly all did. Very little homespun is now worn in that district, though the amount is considerable in the county. in the smaller industries, this district makes a respectable showing. Apples, dried, 1,000 bushels; peaches, dried, 500 bushels; chestnuts gathered, 400 bushels; beeswax, 2,000 pounds; feathers, 3,000 pounds; ginseng, 500 pounds. At the usual prices at which these articles are sold, the amount reported would bring into the district $6,600.

In concluding his answers to the questions sent him, Mr. Allman, in reference to this district, says:

"We have as fine land as can be found in America. Limestone, sandrock and timber for building, and fine water privileges for machinery. The greatest want of this district, as well as for the whole county, is good roads, reliable labor, and capital to start manufactories. A woolen or cotton factory would pay well. We need skilled mechanics, also quite a number of live, progressive immigrants. The large bodies of land ought to be cut up into farms of 100 or 200 acres, then we could build roads, churches, sustain schools, etc. The tenant system will never develop this section. We need more labor-saving machinery. We should sow more grass, grow a better class of stock. Ours should be second to no part of the United States, and would not be if our people would only will it."

Manufactures. The county is well supplied with water and steam mills, either for grinding grain or for sawing lumber. There are more water mills than steam mills. Marshall county has no cotton factory, and no woolen factories outside of carding machines. The blacksmiths, mechanics and farmers make many of their agricultural implements.

They buy, however, too much from the North in the way of agricultural implements, when better and cheaper articles could be produced and made in the county and in the State, if the people would give their attention to it. The supply of wool and cotton manufactures is limited. The people sell the raw products at a low price, and buy the manufactured goods, paying the manufacturer a great profit. Still a good quantity and quality of jeans, linsey, blankets and cotton cloth are made from the original wool and cotton by the women, who, for industry, economy and skill in household and domestic affairs, are not excelled. They ply the wheel, loom and needle, and make cotton and woolen fabrics that vie in utility and comfort with any in the country. In 1870 the value of home manufactures was $45,466.

Academies, Schools and Churches. Academies and schools are generally supported by voluntary contributions. The county has several fine, flourishing academies and many excellent private schools. Except about five schools for colored children, no free schools exist in the county. The colored people draw their part of the funds and enjoy the benefitsthe whites seem indifferent, and prefer to send to private schools and academies. The county is well supplied with churches, some of which have well furnished rooms for worship. The churches are entirely Protestant, and are of the Presbyterian, Christian, Methodist, Cumberland Presbyterian and Baptist denominations. The clergy are devoted, able and learned men, and are well supported.

The statistics showing the amount of taxable property, number of polls, etc., which are not herein given, may be found in the chapter on statistics.

Social Characteristics. The citizens of this county are mainly the descendants of emigrants from North Carolina, Virginia and South Carolina, and have imbibed from their infancy lofty principles of honesty, morality, hospitality and generosity. Unsuspicious by nature, they welcome the stranger to their hospitable boards with a heartiness as sincere as it is rare. Through all the bitter trials of the war they maintained their self respect by the preservation of order, and when it ended and their slaves became freedmen, they dealt honestly and kindly with them, faithfully observing their contracts, and bore with patience the ebullitions of new born freedom. Quiet as citizens, noble as men and women, proud without being arrogant or ostentatious, courteous in bearing, kind, generous and law-abiding, but withal not sufficiently alive to the educational tendencies of the age, nor to that

spirit of progress which weaves garlands of beauty and honor about the homes of the industrious, and without some share of which communities and men decay.

The thanks of this Bureau are due to Hon. A. A. Steele, Major G. T. Allman, Mr. Talley and Mr. McClelland for many valuable facts pertaining to this excellent county.

MAURY COUNTY.

COUNTY SEAT-COLUMBIA.

Maury county was organized December 21, 1807, and was named in honor of Hon. Abram Maury, of Williamson county. The act authorizing its establishment was passed November 24, 1807. Since its organization, its boundaries have been curtailed from time to time to furnish all or part of the counties of Giles, Bedford, Marshall, Lewis, Lawrence, and Hickman. At present the number of acres, exclusive of town lots assessed for taxation, amounts to 366,910, valued at $7,650,478. Small as this area is, compared with its original dimensions, Maury is still one of the large counties of the State.

From its earliest history, Maury county has been noted in the State for its fertile lands, its fine farms and the hospitality, culture and refinement of its society. In the point of country wealth, it ranks first; its farms are among the largest, and are held at the highest figures per acre, and, excepting Davidson and Shelby, it has long maintained a larger number of good schools than any other county in the State. It is not strange, therefore, that it should have exercised considerable political influence in State affairs, or that its citizens are proud of it. The early settlers were mostly from North Carolina and Virginia; many of them were immediate descendents of revolutionary soldiers, and well to do for those days. As a consequence, they brought to the young county as much of refinement and culture as was known in the older society from which they came. This fact had much to do with the after development of the county. People who have been reared to know the comfort and conveniences of life, to say nothing of its luxuries, will not willingly live without them when they can be procured. The early settlers soon showed their culture by the style of their houses,

the planting of fruit trees and flowers, and the general care and attention bestowed on the adornment of their homes. Inseparable from this love of comfort and regard for the looks of things, was the high appreciation of education. Not a few of the first generation of young men raised in the county were sent off to college. Chapel Hill, North Carolina, was the favorite resort, while the young women were sent to Nashville to be finished off. We shall see that this spirit never died out.

Topography and Physical Features. An orographic view of the county would present the picture of a section of a river valley running almost due east and west, with the dip to the west, and fringed to the north and south by smaller valleys which furrow the sides of irregular ranges of knobs or hills which lie along the northern and southern boundaries of the county. To the west, these hills broaden out into the uplands known as the barrens forming a part of the Highland Rim. The bed of this valley is occupied by Duck River, which flows through the whole extent of the county, dividing it almost equally. This river drains the entire county; all other streams in the county flow into it. It is not navigable, though it is floatable through the entire extent of the county, and was, in former years, much used for the transportation of corn and lumber, principally cedar. Rafts are still floated out in considerable numbers every winter, during the high water. The main use and great value of the river, however, are as a water-power in driving the many excellent flour, corn and saw-mills that line its banks. The current of the river is moderately swift, its banks comparatively steep, and on one side, tolerably high throughout the county, while in the west, where it breaks through the Rim escarpment, its banks rise steep and high into almost perpendicular bluffs of solid rock. This escarpment is about three hundred feet high from the surface of the river. The bottom of the river is either smooth rock, or more generally, of smooth round gravel, averaging about two and a half inches in diameter, and of a clay color. The fords are, therefore, permanent and safe where at all practicable. The number of its tributaries is so great that when protracted rains prevail, the river rises rapidly and to a great height; its banks are such, however, that it does comparatively little damage outside, while the solid character of its bottom enables dams to be built which are impregnable.

The Creeks. From the north and south ten good sized creeks flow into Duck River. They all take their headings near the boundaries of the county, and their average fall is about two hundred feet from