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The Founding of Birmingham

Birmingham can be used as an example of:

• New South Industrialism in last half of nineteenth century;
• Growth of Cities in period following Civil War;
• Sociological Problems in cities during Gilded Age;
• Use of Immigrant Labor in United States's rise to industrial power.

Birmingham was founded in 1871 during the Reconstruction Period.

• Site was in Jefferson County where two railroads planned to cross.
• Valley was in middle of Alabama's mineral district with coal, red and brown iron ore, and limestone—minerals needed to make iron.
• Site was a corn field in a poor hill country valley with no navigable river.
• Streets were surveyed in grid pattern in 1871.
• Called "Iron City," later "Magic City" (grew magically from a corn field).

First boom was from real estate sales—boom town with wild west flavor.

• Auction sale of lots advertised all over the country.
• Problems with providing city with clean water and sewage disposal.
• Cholera epidemic in summer of 1873 almost destroyed city.
• September Panic of 1873 drained capital investments and prevented new investment.

Industrial base began with:

• Reopening of Confederate iron furnaces in Shades Valley at Irondale and Oxmoor;
• 1874 opening of Warrior coal field;
• First making of coke pig iron in 1876 (Confederate iron was made with charcoal. Charcoal comes from wood, and many trees in area had been cut; coke comes from coal and burns hotter);
• Investments encouraged by Henry F. DeBardeleben (who was married to Daniel Pratt's only child, Ellen; example of antebellum industry supporting New South industry);
• Rapid growth of city during Great Iron Boom of 1880s:
• Woodward Iron Company furnace went into blast in 1883;
• Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Co. (TCI) arrived in 1886;
• In 1888 Henderson Steel produced first steel in Birmingham.

Labor problems:

• About 20% of the miners were immigrants, 35% native-born; rest African Americans.
• As miners tried to organize, strikes and some violence resulted.
• Many miners and mill workers lived in company towns, shopped at company stores, and went to company doctors when they were sick.