The Fort Payne Educational Association was organized in June 1890, with ambitious plans for a system of preparatory schools in anticipation of a university to be founded soon thereafter within the city. The Fort Payne Academy for Young Ladies opened in October of that year. But other high grade schools, including at projected military academy for boys erected on Lookout Mountain - and the university itself - remained an unfulfilled dream of the city planners.
The building of the new industrial plants caused real estate prices to soar as a speculative fever spread through the city and fortunes changed hands many times. Older residents sold their property at fabulous prices. John McCartney sold a lot to John B. Stetson, the hat manufacturer, for $11,000 and bought it back after the boom for $100. E. S. Killian, a local cotton merchant, sold the lot now occupied by Southern Hardware on Gault Avenue for $75 per front foot. The Fort Payne Land Company then resold the same lot to Milford Howard for $200 per front foot. Judge W. W. Haralson paid $50,000 for one lot, at a rate of $100 per foot.
Among those who came to Fort Payne during the boom days and remained even after they were over was C. M. T. Sawyer, originally from Littleton, New Hampshire. While still in his teens, Sawyer went to Orlando, Florida, to serve as office boy for John W. Weeks, who later became secretary of war in Wilson's cabinet.
After acquiring skill in surveying and title work, he brought his bride to Fort Payne and helped organize the DeKalb Abstract Company . He was to remain here for 62 years, until his death in 1950. Active in civic and political affairs, he served as mayor for 26 years, which included all but two terms between the years 19l 0 - 1940. Though he was admitted to the bar in 1896, after having studied under his business partner, he preferred to spend most of his time at his abstracting work and his insurance business. Sawyer donated the land for Forest Avenue School, as well as that for the old high school activities building and for the Saint Paul Methodist Church.
In 1889 the remarkable Kansas City financier, W. P. Rice, further proved his aptitude for advertising and publicizing by arranging excursions for literally trainloads of New Englanders. When the hotel and boarding house facilities became full, barracks and tents were hastily erected to take care of the overflow. These visitors were lavishly entertained while being duly informed about the value of local real estate and the "vast deposits" of minerals in the area. Every effort was made to bring even more New England people and capital to Fort Payne.
Property continued to change hands rapidly and at higher prices during the first half of 1890. The taxable property rose that year to $3,000,000, as compared to a value of $147,000 two years earlier. Many of the northern buyers came to Fort Payne hoping to sell their property later at a big profit.
Southern residents became far outnumbered, and the city took on the atmosphere of a New England city. There was a New England Shoe Shop, a New England Barber Shop, and a New England Clothing Store. Friends and visitors were invited to "beans" until even the older residents sometimes developed a taste for the famous Boston dish. In advertisements Fort Payne was often referred to as the "Pittsburg of the South", or the "New England City of the South".
The election of 1890 approached with little interest aroused and few issues, other than the enforcement - or alleged lack of it - of the law against the sale of liquor.
Friends of Mayor Godfrey were in favor of renewing the compromise made previously between the new and old residents. A petition signed by J. W. Spaulding, the Maine attorney serving as president of the Fort Payne Coal and Iron Company, and 100 other residents asked Mayor Godfrey to serve another term. But the editor of the Journal led an opposing group which thought it time an older resident served as mayor. When Godfrey declined to seek re-election, Spaulding announced his own candidacy and was elected by the votes of his northern colleagues.
During the latter half of 1890, it began to appear that the mineral resources, especially coal and iron, were below expectations both in quality and quantity. Thus far the Fort Payne Coal and Iron Company had actually been operating at a loss. Even desperate attempts, including the floating of a $5,000,000 bond issue in December, could not keep the boom going.
By l891 property values had dropped, industries had lost money, and people had begun to leave the city. In December, with total collapse of the boom eminent, the stockholders of the eight largest industries made one final effort to avoid financial ruin. They voted to merge into one giant company in order to secure a loan from English investors.
But, after three years of rapid and unwarranted expansion based upon faith in greatly exaggerated mineral claims, Fort Payne's bubble was ready to burst and the clouds of a long depression were already settling over the city. The value of real estate soon declined to a point below the level of 1887. Each train took on more passengers than it left behind, as many New Englanders again headed north. Most of these people either sold their property at a great loss or left it in the care of a rental agency, hoping for better prices in the future.