Lessons of Boll Weevil: A Story of Prosperity, 0717 ALBJ, Vol. 78 No. 4 Pg. 254

AuthorBy M. Dale Marsh
PositionVol. 78 4 Pg. 254

Lessons of The Boll Weevil: A Story of Prosperity

Vol. 78 No. 4 Pg. 254

Alabama Bar Lawyer

July, 2017

By M. Dale Marsh

I would be less than honest if I did not tell all you fellow lawyers that I believe I practice law in the best spot in Alabama– the town of Enterprise in Coffee County. Our city is the home of a world-famous statue–the only statue in the world honoring an insect, the boll weevil. This statue exemplifies and honors the adversity, determination, diversity and triumph the people of Enterprise and Coffee County faced more than 100 years ago.

From humble beginnings, Enterprise has grown at a faster pace than neighboring towns with more industry, population and transportation assets, and stands as a symbol of what can be accomplished by dedicated people to make their town better in every way.

Let me tell you a little bit about how the boll weevil statue came into being: Southeast Alabama (now called the Wiregrass), which includes the counties of Covington, Coffee, Geneva, Houston and Henry, was once Creek Indian territory. When the Indians ceded their lands in southeast Alabama, pioneers took over, but found the most fertile parts of Alabama already taken. These pioneers were left to settle in those Wiregrass counties known as "cow counties" because of the apparent unproductivity of the soils, the inaccessibility to markets, the lack of transportation and the impoverished condition of the meager population.1 They wrestled with infertile red clay and sandy soils covered by grass so tough they called it "wiregrass."

Most of the settlers were poor and did not have the money to buy large tracts of land and the fertilizer necessary to produce cotton. These pioneers turned their efforts toward raising cattle and hogs. After the railroad came to town in 1898, the price of fertilizer decreased, making it possible to plant and grow cotton in the poor soils of the Wiregrass. Cotton then became the principal money crop of our farmers.

Enterprise was located in a long-leaf pine forest served by two small roads in 1881 when John Henry Carmichael moved there and built a small store and his residence on what is now North Main Street. The first post office was in his home.

Prior to the coming of the Mexican boll weevil, farmers planted as much cotton as they could and depended on their efforts and the Good Lord to produce a good crop in the fall. In the late summer of 1915, the Coffee County cotton yield averaged about 35,000 bales each year. Cotton was "king," and until the arrival of the boll weevil, was the most dependable crop. Our farmers knew little about growing anything but cotton and raising food for cattle and hogs. There were hundreds of families in Coffee County who farmed for a living-both black and white. Families with many children were especially desirable as this meant more available hands at cotton-picking time. That was the only way they knew to make a living, and if the cotton crop failed, farmers could not meet their financial obligations to banks that held notes and mortgages on their farms.

The first year the boll weevil made his appearance in Coffee County, the cotton yield was cut to about 60 percent of normal, due to the ravages of the insect. Farmers did everything they could to fight back against the insect. They used homemade remedies and entire farming families took to the fields and pinched the bugs off the plants by hand and killed them. These attempts to fight the boll weevil failed.

Despite the production loss in 1915, the farmers planted for a...

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