HUNTSVILLE  , a

city and the county-seat of Madison county, Alabama, U.S.A., situated on a plain 10 m . N. of the Tennessee river, 18 m. from the northern boundary of the state, at an altitude of about 617 ft . Pop . (1900) 8o68, of whom 3909 were of negro descent; (1910 census) 7611 . There is a considerable suburban population . Huntsville is served by the Southern and the Nashville, Chattanooga & St Louis railways . The public square is on a high bluff (about 750 ft. above sea-level), at the base of which a large spring furnishes the city with water, and also forms a stream once used for floating boats, loaded with cotton, to the Tennessee river . The surrounding country has rich deposits of iron, coal and marble, and cotton, Indian corn and fruit are grown and shipped from Huntsville . Natural gas is found in the vicinity . The principal industry is the manufacture of cotton . The value of the city's factory products increased from $692,340 in 1900 to $1,758,718 in 1905, or 154% . At Normal, about 31 m .

N.E. of Huntsville, is the State Agri-cultural and

Mechanical College for Negroes . Huntsville was founded in 1805 by John Hunt, a Virginian and a soldier in the War of Independence; in 1809 its name was changed to Twickenham, in memory of the home of the poet Alexander Pope, some of whose relatives were among the first settlers; but in 1811 the earlier name was restored, under which the town was incorporated by the Territorial Government, the first Alabama settlement to receive a charter . Huntsville was chartered as a city in 1844 . Here, in 1819, met the convention that framed the first state constitution, and in 1820 the first state legislature . On the 11th of April 1862 Huntsville was seized by Federal troops, who were forced to retire in the following September, but secured permanent possession in July 1863 .