HUNTSVILLE, Ala., city and county seat of Madison County, on the Nashville, Chattanooga and Saint Louis and the Southern railroads, 96 miles due north of Birmingham, 97 miles due west of Chattanooga, 125 miles south of Nashville and 210 miles east of Mem phis. The city is located in the heart of the anions Tennessee Valley, and is surrounded by a large and fertile agricultural cotton, fruit and stock-raising country, making it an import ant commercial centre. As a cotton manufac turing point, its spindles lead the South, and is second only to Lowell, Mass. Its nine cotton mills have 203,000 spindles, with 4,374 looms, the annual product of which amounts to $8,500, 000 in sheet cloth, knitted goods, khaki cloth, drilling andprinting cloth. These mills own 1,346 acres of land and have 34 acres of floor space, support and maintain three Y. M. C. A. buildings, four libraries and trained nurses for the benefit of the employes. Besides these, Huntsville has machine and foundry shops, cot tonseed-oil mills, hoop and heading factory, fibre and planing mills, brick plants, sanitary dairy, mattress factory, broom factory, canning factory, wholesale grocery stores, wholesale seed store, wholesale millinery store, flour mills, bonded warehouses, private warehouses, car riage works, wholesale and retail lumber yards, cottonseed and fertilizer plants; one of the largest nurseries in the world, and one of the largest nursery sections in the United States. The annual pay-roll is $2,018,100. The
government of the city is by commission, this being one of the first cities of the State to adopt this form. The city has paved streets, gas and electric plants, electric car lines, paid fire department and municipal waterworks, with a daily capacity of 24,000,000 gallons. The city is well supplied with a number of private schools, and an excellent public city school with new modern building erected at a cost of $25,000. Four miles north of the city is located the Alabama Agricultural and Me chanical College for Negroes. There are 11 churches, a city infirmary and other notable buildings, including Elks' home and theatre cost $110,000, Y. M. C. A. cost $75,000 and four banks.
The first settler here was Jdhn Hunt, a Vir ginian and a soldier of the Revolution, who came to the Spring) in 1805, built his cabin, the first, nearby and in 1806 went back to Tennessee and brought his family, having lived in that State before coming to Alabama. In 1811 the town was incorporated by the Territorial legislature as Huntsville. The first State constitutional convention was held here 5 July 1819. The first legislature sat here and assembled on the first Monday in August 1820, and this was the first capital of Alabama. Pop. (1910) 7,611, but the city corporate limits have not been extended in 50 years; estimated popu lation including suburbs and mill district is about 20,000.