Excerpts from THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY  OF JAMES ROBERT MAXWELL which can be used to produce a key to the 1887 map

PAGE 1:  The newly wedded pair at once went to Tuskaloosa, and to housekeeping in their own home, that has lately been torn down, but which was on the corner westward, across the street from the present county jail, which is on the quarter square, then the vegetable garden of Thomas Maxwell. Diagonally from the Maxwell residence was the old Baptist Church, now occupied by the warehouse of Allen & Jemison Co. Across the street, northwardly, was the residence of M. D. J. Slade, who was owner and publisher of the Tuskaloosa Monitor newspaper. 

PAGE 2:  Mrs. Little's school was in their family home, which stood where the Diamond Theater now stands, the front facing the Odd Fellows Hall on west side of Greensboro Street, where the Allen & Jemison Hardware Store is now. In front were several large China trees, and along outside of the sidewalk on the south side of the house was another row of China trees. 

PAGE 3:  Across the street, to the south, was the residence of Dr. Leland, a long one-story building. 

PAGE 5:  About Jan. 1st, 1850, my grandfather and grandmother went to housekeeping in a two-story house that stood where now stands the county courthouse. It had a one-story piazza on the side next to Greensboro Street, that being the front of the house.

  sent to Mr. Milford F. Woodruff's preparatory school. Mr. Woodruff leased the lower story of the Odd Fellows Hall, a two-story brick building that stood where now stands the hardware store of Allen & Jemison Company. In the front was a pillared one-story portico, brick paved. Across the front, about level with the eaves, in large gilt letters was I. 0. 0. F. The lower story had two front rooms, one at each corner, with one large window to each. The rooms were about fifteen feet square, and in the center a hall and staircase reaching the upper story, and one large room in the rear about 40 x 30 feet for a schoolroom. The corresponding rooms upstairs were the lodge rooms and accessory rooms. 

 PAGE 6: His father was the principal bookseller of the town, David Woodruff. The bookstore was about in the center of the block on Main Street, about where Pizitz' department store now stands.

PAGE 7:  Our playground was a large yard in the rear of the schoolroom. Only the street separated it from grandma's house. Whenever I got hungry I ran across the street.

PAGE 17:  I do not remember what became of Charles, but the next man of all work at our home was named Bill Comegys. My father bought him from Mr. E. F. Comegys, who lived in the brick house that still stands diagonally across the street from the present residence of my brother, Charles N. Maxwell, in Tuskaloosa.

In order to give an idea of Tuskaloosa society and population during the years from 1852 to 1858, when my mother died, I think well to give the residences and locations of families and churches and other buildings during those years, I being from eight to fourteen years of age. I have described the square on which our home was located. The square eastward from that held our Uncle Robert's and grandparents' house on its northeast quarter square. On the northwest quarter square was our vegetable garden. The southern half of that square belonged to the Hogan family, the only names of mem- bers of which I can remember are Alexander and Gertrude. This family, probably in 1856 or 1857, moved to Iowa, about the time of big speculations in land in that state. Tuskaloosa Families and Their Homes--1845 to 1860 The next square to the south contained, at its north- east quarter, the old Methodist Church and parsonage; on its southeast quarter the residence of Dr. Reuben Searcy, the building being much as it now stands; on 

PAGE 19:  Dr. John R. Drish owned a large farm on both sides of the Greensboro road reaching from the boundaries of the old corporation southward to where the depot of the Ala. Great Southern R. R. now stands. His residence is now the Jemison schoolhouse. It was planned and its building was superintended by a negro slave of Dr. Drish. From its front door northward to the corporation line extended a broad avenue of elm trees which still stand. At the corporation line was the entrance gate; on the west side of which was built a porters' lodge, occupied by a family of negroes that were the property of Dr. Drish. Some one was supposed to be always in attendance to open and shut this gate as needed. The style was that of an Englishman's country estate, and this large plantation was well cultivated at all times. West of this residence of Dr. Drish, extending from the back yard in rear of the residence nearly to the Greensboro road on the west, was a long row of brick rooms where the negroes lived who culti- vated this farm.

PAGE 20:  In the large field on the west side of the road that reached from the corporation line down to about where the oil mill now stands, and perhaps 200 yards west of Greensboro road, was the gin house and long-armed wooden screw press to gin and press all the cotton raised on the place and that of many neighbors contiguous with smaller farms. 

  In sight of the residence of Dr. Drish was that of Mr. Alexander Dearing, an imposing residence, so long in late years occupied by Major James Spence. 

PAGE 21 & 22:  Again in plain sight of the old Alexander Dearing home, a few hundred yards to the northeast and just outside of the old corporation line (which Queen City Avenue bounded) was the residence of Alexander Dearing brother, James Dearing. The house was of the same general plan, but the high pillars of the porticoes are of wood instead of brickwork.

Hon. John J. Ormond was a member of the Supreme Court of Alabama for many years, resigning about Jan. 1st, 1848, and resumed the practice of law in Tuskaloosa, dying in 1865. He lived in the house now occupied by Dr. Geo. Little.

PAGE 23:  Many of the papers bearing on the deeds to my father were arranged by Judge Ormond in the purchase of the Maxwell Plantation. https://reclaimalabama.blogspot.com/2023/03/blog-post_30.html

PAGE 25:  Yet farmers or drovers, buying from the farmers way up in Tennessee, every winter brought down from that state hogs in large droves on their own feet, and as a rule they did not have to drive beyond Tuskaloosa. Here they struck the edge of the black belt with its large plantations. Where Stallworth's Lake now is there was a constant flowing spring of most excellent water, with no mineral taste whatever. It was curbed up with brick and mortar and overflow ran from it at about two feet from the surface of the earth through a pipe of perhaps one and a half inches in diameter, even in the dryest seasons.

PAGE 30: Mr. Robert Jemison built his residence (now the Van de Graffe home) with pine lumber of the choicest description from their own lands and mills, sea- soned and worked up by band on the spot. Plank Road Jemison's Mills to Tuskaloosa Doors and fittings of the principal rooms were picked from the choicest of curly pine, and dressed, smoothed and varnished in the natural grain and color of the wood. 

PAGE 31: I have described the square on which our home was located. The square eastward from that held our Uncle Robert's and grandparents' house on its northeast quar- ter square. On the northwest quarter square was our vegetable garden. The southern half of that square belonged to the Hogan family, the only names of mem- bers of which I can remember are Alexander and Ger- trude. This family, probably in 1856 or 1857, moved to Iowa, about the time of big speculations in land in that state.

PAGE 31 AND 32: The next square to the south contained, at its northeast quarter, the old Methodist Church and parsonage; on its southeast quarter the residence of Dr. Reuben Searcy, the building being much as it now stands; on  its southwest quarter the frame residence of Mrs. Raoul, with Alfred Raoul, her son, and daughters, Elise and Hattie. Capt. Charles L. Lumsden married Elise Raoul, probably in 1861. The northwest quarter of this square was occupied by the home of one of the Richardsons, who were owners of the steamboat Ophelia and of some plantations the location of which I never knew. 

PAGE 32:  Coming southward along Greensboro Street, the next square held, in its northeast quarter, the Presbyterian Church which has lately been replaced by the new build- ing so generously financed by the widow of Mr. James Spence. The southeast quarter of the square held a one-story frame building tenanted by a widow named Douthet with two children. The western half was owned by a merchant named Hopkins, his home being a frame building with a piazza extending the length of the front at the northwest quarter of the square, where now stands the parsonage of the Presbyterian Church.

PAGE 32: The Presbyterian parsonage of that date being in the home now occupied by Mr. Clayton Strickland at the then extremity of Greensboro Street, at the southern boundary of the corporation, on the eastern side. The pastor was the Rev. R. B. White, whom I well remember as he was still pastor at the end of the Confederate War. 

  The next square towards the south was owned by Mr. Alfred Battle, whose residence and gardens, ornamental and vegetable, occupied the whole square, as it still does, being the residence of Mrs. B. Friedman. Mr. Battle was a wealthy planter, the plantation being down on Warrior River, in the then Greene, now Hale, County. He was a native of North Carolina, a brother of Miss Mary attle, who married Governor Henry W. Collier, and one of the leading members of the Metho- dist Church, as well as the governor. 

PAGE 33:  The next square to the south was almost all owned by Mr. Henry A. Snow, one of the leading merchants, whose store was about middle of the block west of the present Raiford Stores. 

The next square to the south was owned by Mrs. Rufus H. Clements. He owned a plantation on the north side of the river several miles down from Northport. His wife was a Miss Bugbee, from Montgomery, Ala. He served in the Legislature of 1851 when quite a young man, having graduated from the University of Alabama in 1845.

  In the next square to the south, the northeast quarter was occupied by the residence of Mr. John Craddock, another wealthy planter whose lands lay somewhere near Columbus, Miss. 

  The southeast corner of that square was occupied by the one-story brick residence of Dr. John Marrast, who was for many years postmaster at Tuskaloosa. The post office was in a low one-story row of rooms between where now are the new buildings, occupied by the Tucker Motor Co., and rear of Rogers' undertaking rooms. Across the street, where now stands the new post office the army, and other Federal offices, was the Washington Hotel that belonged to Judge Washington Moody, but was, as a rule, rented out to some hotel man.

PAGE 34:  Dr. John Marrast's residence was the last inside of the corporation on the west side of Greensboro Avenue, which then had a center row of water oaks. 

 Returning down on the east side of Greensboro Avenue and designating occupants, the Presbyterian parsonage, occupied by the Rev. Dr. Robert B. White, in the same house now owned by Mr. Clayton Strickland, was the end house. The northwest corner of that block I cannot now name the owner of as a certainty, but I think it was a small one-story brick house owned by a Mr. Wyndom, the proprietor of the hotel, and Wyndom Springs, which a summer watering-place for Tuskaloosa people quite well patronized by people whose business allowed them to take several months' vacation in the months from July to September. There was a son whose given name I have forgotten, but one daughter was named Adeline. This location is now occupied by Mr. John R. Kennedy and occupies the northern half of that square. 

 The next square, on the right of Greensboro Avenue going north, was occupied and built during these years by Mr. Robert Jemison, Jr. The whole square. The junior was attached to Mr. Jemison's name by himself to distinguish his signature from that of his uncle of the same name, Mr. Jemison's own father having been named William. I think Mr. Robert Jemison, Jr.'s wife was a Miss Taylor from Mobile. Across the street to the west was the Rufus Clements' home. 

PAGE 35:  The next square was built on during these years by Mr. William Battle, a son of Mr. Alfred Battle, either after or before his marriage with a Miss Withers of Mobile. 

 I am not able to remember the families who lived on the next square opposite the square occupied by Mr. Alfred Battle, but the next square was occupied by the residence of the widow, Mrs. Samuel Eddins; the residence being the large brick house with brick columns now owned by Mr. David Rosenau, which in the main was as it now stands, occupying the southwest corner of the square and the balance of the square, vegetable and flower gardens.

 The next square, opposite Dr. Searcy's residence, was cut up in three parts. Where now stands the residence of Mrs. George A. Searcy stood a small wooden one- story house occupied by a Mistress Peak, a widow. The northern half of the square contained the residence of Mr. Charles Jerome Fiquet on its northwest quarter, with garden and stable lot on northeast quarter, and the residence of Capt. Cummins, who ran a steamboat on the Warrior, Tuskaloosa to Mobile, was on the southeast quarter of the square. Mr. Fiquet's residence faced the Methodist Church across the street. 

 The next square going north was divided between the widow of Dr. Hayes on the southern half square, her residence being at the northwest corner of the lot, leaving the balance of the half square for vegetable and flower gardens; the northern half of the square was the prop- erty of Dr. William Leland, a long, one-story frame house with a portico facing Greensboro Avenue, and a latticed side-porch in the rear along the side street, said lattices painted green.

 Across Greensboro Avenue, west- ward, was the residence of our Uncle Robert Maxwell and our grandparents. 

PAGE 36:  In the southwest corner of the next square, facing Odd Fellows Hall across the avenue, was Mrs. Barbara Little's primary school and the family residence of Dr. John Little, Sr. On the adjoining lot was the residence of the Widow Cantly. On the northwest quarter of this square was the old county courthouse of brick with its tower in front touching the sidewalk, containing the stairways up to the second-floor county courtroom, and Masonic hall above same, in the third story, and up into the clock tower that capped the whole. On the northeast quarter of the square, behind the courthouse, was a boarding house or hotel. Between Mrs. Cantley's and the courthouse was the brick office of the probate judge, and rooms and vaults for county records, supposed to be fireproof. The courthouse occupied the ground on which the Alston Building now stands.

  No stores for sale of goods were on any street except what is now Broad Street, which was known then as Main Street. 

The northern half of the next square was occupied by stores with little yards in their rear. Where the City National Bank now stands was then the site of Charles Foster's shoe factory and sales store.  

 Where Brown's dollar store now stands was a finely appointed bar-room, with billiard tables in rooms above. The southeast quarter of that square was occupied by a blacksmith shop and a carriage and wagon shop, and at the southwest corner, across the street from the court- house, was a furniture factory. Between the furniture factory and rear of the bar-room on the west side of the square was a two-story brick rooming house.

PAGE 37:  Across Main Street was the last square on top of the hill overlooking the river. On the southwest corner of this square was a large rambling hotel, where stood recently what was known as the Atlanta Store, run by Friedman & Loveman, and where, at this writing, preparation is being made for the building of a new Merchants’ Bank and several stories above for offices. The front building was of brick, two stories in height and 100 feet deep, with a hotel lobby and bar-room on the ground floor, as well as a dining room. To the rear were rooms and offices for lawyers, and upstairs was an auditorium to be used for lectures, traveling theaters, and shows of different sorts. All this west side of the square was built up solidly two stories in height. At the beginning of the war the upper story and show room was used temporarily as a prison for Yankees. When the Federals raided Tuskaloosa at the end of the war, the whole property was burnt to the ground.

At the southeast corner of this square was the general store of Mr. Spiller, and between were stores of different owners. One which I remember was that of the merchant tailor, Charles J. Fiquet, also the barber shop of Shandy Jones, a free mulatto man, and others whose names I do not recall.

  The next square to eastward was also occupied by merchant stores. On the southwest corner, extending three-fourths of the depth of the square, was the general merchandise store of T. J. R. & R. Maxwell, two stories in height, the front end being of brick for 150 feet in depth and 50 feet front.

PAGE 38:  Next door to them was the dry good store of J. P. Turner, and next to that the drug store of Dr. John Little, husband of Mrs. Barbara Little, the primary school teacher.

Next, going east, was the hardware store of H. A. Snow & Co., and next a few stores whose owners I forget, but at the southeast corner of the square was a carpenter shop.

 Facing T. J. R. & R. Maxwell, across the main street, was the store of Mr. John Glascock, and at about the center of the square, eastward, was the bakery of Mr. John Barnes, an English Yorkshireman, who had lately arrived from England with his wife and had very little means except being a competent baker.

 PAGE 39:  mercantile part of town was all on Main Street, two squares in length on both sides of the street with a row of water oak trees edging the sidewalks and one down the center of the street.

 Between the shoe store of Chas. M. Foster, and Mr. Spiller, in the center of Main Street, was a public well and a public or city wagon scale, and by the side of the scale was a small house for the scale keeper, whose name was Bird and who made saddles and bridles and harness, as well as being city weigher. 

At the north end of the square, in the rear of T. J. R. & R. Maxwells' store was a blacksmith shop, and facing it, across the street, was the residence of our father's old friend, Mr. A. Graham, a Scotchman, and a relative of the Littles'. Later this residence was occupied by the Toxey family. 

Going northward from the rear of the store of T. J. R. & R. Maxwell, and down the steep and gullied hill to the edge of the flat that reached to the banks of the river, was the large tanyard of Mr. Charles M. Foster, doing a flourishing business in the tanning of hides, and turning out oak-tanned leather for all purposes.

 Farther down the river, at the foot of the hill leading from the end of Greensboro Avenue to the Warrior Bridge, stood a large cotton factory, turning out yarns for the making of the “warp” for the jeans made on the hand looms. 

PAGE 40:  The small brick house at the foot of the hill leading to Warrior Bridge, on the eastern side of the street, is all that now remains of what was the cotton mill property. It was the office of the factory company.

 Between the tanyard and the factory company's office was a long brick building, used by the operatives at work in the factory as homes while working at the factory. This building was at the foot of the bluff below the present depot of the L. & N. R. R.

  Just below the southern end of Warrior Bridge, on top of the hill that constituted the steamboat wharf, was a very large-framed cotton warehouse, and across the river, on the Northport side, was another. 

PAGE 41: Across the ravine in front of the southern entrance of the bridge was the iron foundry and plow factory of the Messrs. Leach and Avery, molding all sorts of cast iron utensils and the celebrated Avery cast plows, principally the No. 8. 

The latter years of the war a hat factory was added at this foundry. They made, almost entirely, wool hats, but they made splendid hats out of beaver fur when the skins were furnished them.  

PAGE 42: About 100 yards down the bank of the river from this foundry was a paper mill. I remember seeing it at work turning out the sheets from big rollers and rolling up big rolls of paper. But of the people who owned it, and worked it, my memory is very indistinct. I believe it failed to make money from the first. The stripped, two-story brick building with gaping windows stood there for years. A large, cemented, deep tank, which was supplied with water from the same branch just before reaching the river, got to be a mighty sure place to catch small bream, as we small boys soon found out. 

PAGE 43:  along the west side of Greensboro Avenue in the old days between 1852 and 1858, I have no clear remembrance of the square on top of the hill, except a large brick house on the main street front that had been the old State Bank, and was then the residence of a Mr. Albert G. Gooch, whom I do not remember, but I do remember his wife, who was a sister of Mr. John G. Barr, 

 At the southwest corner of this square, where the new store of the Burchfield Bros. now stands, was the cabinet shop of Mr. Lynch, where all sorts of fine furniture were made. 

 Facing that, across Main Street, was the Indian Queen Hotel, with its portico in front and long line of rooms, reaching nearly to the corner opposite the Episcopal Church. Through the center of this square and east of the Indian Queen Hotel ran a long livery stable reaching entirely through the square, which was run by a Mr. William Johnson, and at this stable the mail-coach horses of the Jemison Co. were stabled. On the Greensboro Avenue face of this square, about where Taylor's drug store now is, was the office of Dr. Reuben Searcy. Where McLester Hotel now stands the corner lot was bare from some cause unknown to me, and I forget what was where the Ward Drug Store now is. 

PAGE 44:  City Hall now is was, at that day, the market house with butchers' stalls below, and rooms above for city offices. On the same northeast quarter square stood the city “calaboose,” a little brick cabin, isolated, perhaps twenty feet square, standing back from the sidewalk of Greensboro Avenue some twenty feet. It was in charge of the city marshal, at that date a Dr. Skinner; one of his duties was to apply the “cowhide" to the backs of negro servants who were sent to him for chastisement for small offenses not subject to punishment by law

PAGE 45:  (TOP OF MARKET HOUSE/CITY HALL) weather vane representing an Indian running; a long bow, with arrow drawn to its head in his hands, pointing in the direction of the wind. The body of the Indian was painted red.\

 The southeast quarter of this square was owned by the Odd Fellows, with a building and large yard used as a playground by the boys.

 Between Dr. Leland's office and Odd Fellows Hall was a splendid well, with its shelter upheld by four posts.

 The south-west quarter of the square was occupied by the Baptist Church and its Sunday-school room, the northwest quarter by the Episcopal Church at the corner and the rectory standing a little south of the church, a little back from the street. 

PAGE 46:  Across the street that formed the northern boundary of our home lived Mr. M. D. J. Slade, who published the Tuskaloosa Monitor newspaper. The office where the work was done was two squares north, opposite the Indian Queen Hotel. 

PAGE 48:  Between the Episcopal Church and Market House, somewhere about the center of the north side of that square, was the fire-engine house, where was kept the fire engine of that day; the pressure being obtained from a large pump operated by long hand rails on each side of the machine attached to the pumps, which it took from six to ten men on a side to work.

PAGE 49:  About halfway down the hill going to the river bridge, on the west side of the street, was the powder house, a brick building about ten feet square with a door covered with sheet iron and a lightning rod pointing skyward. All merchants handling powder were forced to keep their powder supply in that building, the city marshal keeping the key. A twenty-five-pound keg could be taken out at a time to be transferred into an iron can in the stores. I do not remember ever to have heard of any serious accident in the handling of powder. 

 in the schoolyard in the rear of Odd Fellows Hall, A ball knocked over into our father's garden was sure to allow a full run to be counted. There was a paling fence along the southern boundary of the yard, but always several gaps in same. 

PAGE 60:  Rev. Charles Manley is the only minister I remember, a son of the Rev. Basil Manley, so long president of the University. His home was two squares west of my father's house, on the south side of the street in the northeast corner of the square. There was no other residence between our home and his, for the intervening square, next to the one on which our home stood, was all the property of a Mrs. Ross, whose house stood on the southeast corner of the square. It was a large building with a brick basement story, and two frame stories and a garret above, with a two- story portico on the south side of the building.