Thomas McAdory Owen

“ Laws on subjects affecting religious work.—Members of any church or religious society, or the owners of a graveyard, may become incorporated by complying with a liberal statute on the subject, and may hold real and personal property not to exceed $50,000 in value. The property of institutions devoted exclusively to religious, educational, or charitable purposes is exempt from taxation to a limited, yet liberal, extent. Ministers in charge of churches are exempt from jury duty. ”

“ Several institutions of high grade are conducted as private enterprises, notably the Marion Military Institute. Colleges of medicine and pharmacy are located in Birmingham and Mobile; and a school of dentistry at Birmingham. Theological courses are offered at Howard College (Baptist) ; schools of music and art, and business colleges are in operation in Birmingham, Montgomery, and Mobile. A law department is maintained at the State University.
Co-education obtains in all State institutions, except in the Alabama Girls' Industrial School and the Livingston State Normal School. ”

“ The Spanish came to Mobile in considerable numbers from 1780 to 1811 and the Gulf city today is the only community in the State in which there is any very large infusion of the Latin races. The territory embraced in the State is said to have been settled more rapidly than any other section of the United States, and in 1819 passed from territorial pupilage. In 1800 Washington county, then in the Mississippi Territory, had a population of 1,250 ”

“ During the life of the Church in the State it has been served, in Mobile and at other points, by many priests of deep piety and extensive learning, and men who have contributed their part as well in shaping the growth of the commonwealth in high civic ideals. ”

“ History.—The territory now included in the State was for hundreds of years the home in part of the Creek, Cherokee, Choctaw, and Chickasaw Indian tribes. It is not possible to place any approximate limit to their occupation, and their early history is involved in obscurity. Certain it is that the aboriginal inhabitants, first encountered by European explorers in this region, were the direct ancestors of the tribes named. In the early years of the sixteenth century daring sailors doubtless touched the shores of Mobile Bay ”

“ There is no constitutional or statutory provision requiring the use of prayer in the State Senate and House of Representatives, but it has always been customary for each body to provide for such a service to be held at the opening of the day's session. Usually the clergymen of the capital city, without discrimination, are asked to alternate. ”

“ The common schools are directed by a State superintendent of education, and the local machinery consists of county boards and district trustees. There are fifty separate school districts, self-governing or regulated by special Acts, as Montgomery, Birmingham, etc. Separate State institutions for both white and Negro deaf, dumb, and blind are located at Talladega. A Reform School for white boys is conducted at East Lake. A separate agricultural experiment station is maintained at Uniontown. ”

“ The growth of the mineral interests has quickened the laying out of cities, the multiplication of railroad lines, and the development of manufactures. In 1905 there were in the State 1,882 manufacturing establishments with a capital of $105,382,859, employing 3,763 officials, and 62,173 wage earners, and turning out a product valued at $109,169,922. ”

“ The Jews have strong congregations in all of the leading towns. Sectarian schools have already been noted under the head of education. Orphan asylums and other benevolences are conducted by the Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, and the Salvation Army.
State laws on subjects directly affecting religion.—Under the Constitution of 1901, which practically followed earlier instruments, it is provided (Section 2) : "That no religion shall be established by law; that no preference shall be given by law to any religious sect, society, denomination or mode of worship ”

“ Military service is voluntary. Marriage between whites and Negroes is prohibited. Legislative divorce is not allowed under the constitution. With certain limitations the following are the statutory grounds for divorce: physical and incurable incapacity, adultery, voluntary abandonment, imprisonment in the penitentiary, the commission of the crime against nature, habitual drunkenness, and cruelty. ”

“ He made no settlements, and his expedition was of no value further than for the record left by his chroniclers concerning the Southern Indians. In 1560 a Spanish colony was located at Nanipacna, believed to be in the present Wilcox county, Ala., but it was short-lived and no details are preserved. A century and a half pass, and a dark veil of obscurity covers the land. In 1697, or 1698, three Englishmen, coming overland from the Carolinas, descended the Alabama River to the village of the Mobilians on the Mobile River. ”

“ Alabama Industrial School for White Boys, $8,000.00.
In addition to the institutions maintained from the public treasury, there are the following higher institutions supported and controlled by religious denominations: Spring Hill College, near Mobile; St. Bernard College, Cullman; McGill Institute, Mobile; St. Joseph's College for Negro Catechists, Montgomery (Catholic) ; Southern University, Greensboro; North Alabama Conference College, Birmingham; Athens Female College, Athens; and Alabama Conference Female College, Tuskegee (Methodist Episcopal Church, South) ”

“ Father Davion, above mentioned, was first a missionary to the Tunicas. In 1709 churches were erected at Dauphin Island, and also ten miles above Mobile for a band of Apalache Indians, who had been earlier converted by Spanish missionaries. ”

“ Devises may be made to any person or corporation capable by law of holding real estate. The Supreme Court has held that a bequest to "the Baptist Societies for Foreign and Domestic Missions and the American and Foreign Bible Society", is valid ”