Show A TOWN SOLD FOE TAXES an ex slave buys the former capital of alabama bac abe center of n aristocracy Aritt mut sold for the price ot an ordinary town lot the irony of fate was never more strikingly exemplified than at selma a few days since when the town site of cababa cahaba once the capital of alabama and the center of an opulent slaveholding aristocracy was sold for taxes and bought in by henry freeman an ex slave for five hundred and fifty dollars on the property are a dozen or more houses two or three brick stores being among the number but these will be torn down situated as it was at the confluence of the cababa cahaba and alabama rivers ca haba was at one time one of the most important inland towns in the south it is said to have been a most beautiful village surrounded by the beautiful and fertile plantations that lay along the banks of the stately alabama cababa cahaba was the home of the nobles of the state herb they built their lovely dwellings in tha architecture of the south of that day with broad verandah veran daa wide halls and a multitude of windows extensive grounds surrounded each the choicest flowers bloomed in the gardens magnolias oaks and stately cedars fringed the entrance to the grounds cape jasmine and myrtle grew into trees in the flower gardens hundreds of domestic fowls scratched and clucked and crew in the poultry yards blooded horses weighed neighed and pranced in and about the stables it was ideal living these good worthies had speaking of their manner of living a recent newspaper writer thus discourses some of the wealthier reared piles of brick after the fashion of the villas of old england and few others yet whose incomes were princely dwelt in veritable palaces of stone and marble in the midst of parks with windings drives bordered by semitropical semi tropical flowers wet with the spray of flashing fountains here lived the proudest families in the state famous in the history of that day and some of whom are yet powerful in the affairs of the new era the morgans the craigs the the lawsons dawsons and others of greater or less celebrity william L yanceys Yance ys home was in lowndes county just across the river and his was a familiar figure on the streets of the town such was cababa cahaba when the confederacy was bom at montgomery one hundred miles or so up the river ca habas men went to the front to fight and her women wept at home the capital had been removed to tuscaloosa shortly before in its place a tall grim stockade was erected it being the southernmost prison of the confederacy the battle of selma a few miles away was the nearest that actual war came but nevertheless the war was a death blow to cababa cahaba when the strife was over the merchants and business men re stocked the empty shelves of thair stores a daily newspaper was issued and everything possible was done to restore the old town to this former importance but selma her rival had railroads and a river too and the trades people and their cotton floated on to that city at last by a popular vote the county seat was transferred thither and a hegira soon followed many of the costly mansions were torn down and reconstructed ted in the successful city most of the balance were left tenantless tenant lesa year by year the population was diminished by death and removal until gradually the old town was deserted and finally obliterated from the face of the map by the auctioneers hammer the dear dead old town will however never be forgotten and in that brier and weed grown cemetery there is dust that will ever remain sacred to every true alabamian |