Brierfield Furnace, State Highway 25, Brierfield Ironworks Park-Tannehill State Historical Park, Brierfield

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8 miles south of Montevallo on AL 25, Brierfield, Bibb County, Alabama. Brierfield Park is reached from I 65 by travelling southwest on Bibb County 25 eight miles from Montevallo. Montevallo is 33 miles south of Birmingham. Ownership: State of Alabama, operated as part of the Tannehill State Park by the Tannehill Furnace and Foundry Commission, until operated by the Brierfield Ironworks Foundation. Date of Construction: Builder/Architect/ Engineer: Multiple Project Information This report is based upon written documentation donated by the Birmingham Historical Society, reformatted to HABS/HAER guidelines. Description: The park consists of several historic industrial structures.

The base of the brick furnace is situated at the foot of a hillside on the western portion of the Brierfield Park property. Behind it are foundations of the charging bridge, foundry operations and a reservoir. Furnace Branch Creek crosses the property on the eastern side where a tramway bed leads two and one-half miles to the foundations of the rolling mill and of an nailery, a superintendent's house and cemetery. Significance The Brierfield charcoal blast furnaces, financed by the Confederate government, produced exceptionally good foundry iron suitable for casting into rifled cannons including the South's most important naval artillery piece: the Brooke cannon.

Brierfield's brick-walled blast furnace built during Reconstruction produced the first commercial scale runs of coke pig iron in the state. This furnace, the base of which remains, marks the transition between charcoal-fired stone furnaces and modern steel-jacketed coke furnaces. BRIERFIELD FURNACE HAER No. AL-3 0 (Page 2) Remaining foundations of Brierfield's Confederate- financed rolling mill are considered the most intact remnants of a wrought iron rolling mill in the state. The railroad linking furnace to mill also remains.

Historical Overview

In Caswell Campbell Huckabee, a Greensboro, Alabama planter and Jonathan Newton Smith, a Bibb County planter, constructed a 36' high stone blast furnace on a large tract of land purchased from Jesse Mahan. (Ellison, Richard Fell was employed to construct a furnace. (Armes, He gathered machinery from Montgomery and from Brierfield, Mississippi, Jefferson Davis' hometown, a coincidence which some say led to the naming of the furnace site. (The site was also said to have been amply covered with briers.) Huckabee furnished most of the capital and also the slave labor. When it was discovered that manufacture of wrought iron was more profitable than casting iron, in the company began construction of a rolling mill near the Alabama & Tennessee River railhead two miles to the east at Shelby.

The furnace operation provided its owners a lucrative business providing farmers with iron implements. Albert and Richard Fell, Jr. assisted their father in construction of the rolling mill. Fell, a well-seasoned builder of rolling mills in Tennessee, Kentucky and Missouri, had also built the Shelby rolling mill (Everse, Owing to the high quality of the iron and its suitability for making guns, the Confederate government purchased the Brierfield works in at a "force sale" for Renamed the Bibb Naval Furnace, the plant greatly increased in productivity through construction of a second blast furnace (a 40' high brick stack equipped with hot blast) and the rolling mill.

A railroad connected the rolling mill and the main line of the Alabama and Tennessee Railroad to the furnaces two and one-half miles to the east. (Everse, 23) The entire output of the furnaces and rolling mill was shipped to the Confederate Arsenal at Selma and much of it used to build more than 100 Brooke cannon, considered by many the South's "most awesome weapon." (Tepper, Selma Gun Foundry, in Everse, 26) The furnace turned out 25 tons of iron daily, the largest output of any Alabama ironworks of the era. The rolling mill, the only one in Bibb County, reached a capacity of 10 tons. (Armes, The furnaces and rolling mill were destroyed March 31, by the Tenth Missouri Calvary.

(Ellison, In General Josiah Gorgas, former chief of ordinance for the Confederate government, a Pennsylvania native who had married an Alabama governor's daughter, gathered a group of investors, led by Frances Strother Lyon and Daniel Prout of Demopolis. Known as the BRIERFIELD FURNACE HAER No. AL-30 (Page 3) Canebrake Company, they purchased the ironworks and approximately acres of land. Gorgas superintended operations, while Welsh ironmaster Giles Edward undertook the rebuilding of the ironworks and began construction of a nailery. Furnace Number Two was recharged on November 2, The ironworks became officially known as the "Brierfield Ironworks" at this time.

Plagued by difficulty in locating investment capital, retaining labor, and by high freight rates and competition from other operations, in Gorgas accepted an administrative position at the University of the South at Sewanee, and later became president of the University of Alabama. During the next two decades, numerous individuals including Thomas Alvis, an experienced specialist in rolling mills backed by Selma capitalists; investors from Louisville, Kentucky (W. D. and Kearsley Carter and William Douglass) and others from St. Louis, Missouri attempted to make a go of the ironworks. Beginning in the furnaces, having depleted supplies of area charcoal, were operated on coke. (Everse, 39) By things were popping and the town of Brierfield was officially subdivided.

Under the management of Major Thomas Jefferson Peter a big-time railroad engineer-contractor and mining man from Kansas, together with his associates and investors, Brierfield became the "Magic City of Bibb County." From to Peter rebuilt the furnace, remodeled the rolling mill and erected a nailery, coke ovens and a washer. Investment capital came from a group of U. S. Senators headed up by Alabama Senator John T. Morgan and Peter's brother-in-law, a Kansas Senator. Coal mines were opened and additional railroad tracks built. Skilled labor was imported from Pennsylvania, with 500 names appearing on the payroll at the height of the boom. Brierfield produced a good quality "Bibb" iron.

However, just as Brierfield nails were entering the market, steel cut-wire nails from the Pittsburgh area undercut them. Due to this competition and national financial difficulties in the the furnace was blown out for the last time Christmas eve of (Armes For decades, the industrial plant lay crumbling in the Bibb County woods. After World War II, when brick houses were in vogue, thousands of bricks were scavenged from the site. In members of the Bibb County Heritage Association went to the county commission. The county created a park to preserve the ruins. Kimberly-Clark Corp., which owned the 100-acres surrounding the furnace ruins, gave the county the right to use the site as a park on a long-term lease and contributed funds for its development.

Ownership of the rolling mill and nailery site is in multiple public and private hands. In the late Dr. Kermit Hunter, dean of the School of the Arts at Southern Methodist University and author of more than 30 BRIERFIELD FURNACE HAER NO. AL-3 0 (Page 4) outdoor dramas, wrote a drama entitled "Brighthope" about the furnace. For several years Brierfield Park and the drama department of the University of Montevallo produced the out-of-door summer drama in a 600-seat amphitheater built at the park site. (Stallworth, The Brierfield Ironworks, listed on the National Register in the early has recently become part of Tannehill Historical State Park. Portions of the original 400-acre site remain in private ownership. Ruins of the No. 2 brick furnace are located on the 45- acre park site.

Furnace No. 1 appears to have been destroyed with construction of Furnace No. 2 in the BRIERFIELD HISTORIC INDUSTRIAL STRUCTURES AND SITES: 1. Furnace No. 2, First built during the Civil War by the Confederate government, this brick furnace equipped with hot blast was rebuilt in the late by Gen. Josiah Gorgas and again in the by Tom Peter. The furnace is currently in ruins. 2. Tramway Bed Runs two and one half miles from Furnace No. 2 to the site of the rolling mill and Alabama and Tennessee River railhead at Brierfield. The tramway is overgrown but clearly visible. 3. Rolling Mill (c. First constructed by Richard Fell, Sr. for C. C.

Huckabee in and completed by the Confederate government, this rolling mill was rebuilt by Thomas Peter in the It is located near the Alabama and Tennessee railhead on Mahan Creek. The foundations remain but are too densely covered by overgrowth to be adequately photographed. Corners were marked by archaeologists James Parker and Cailup Curren in a survey for the Alabama Historical Commission. 4. Nailery Construction was begun by Gorgas and completed by Thomas Peter in the The foundations of this nailery may remain. 5. Coke Ovens The coke ovens constructed by Thomas Peter are thought to have been obliterated. 6. Cemetery This cemetery includes sections for blacks and whites and is well maintained. 7. Superintendent's House This is a one-story frame house. BRIERFIELD FURNACE HAER No.

AL-30 (Page 5) OTHER STRUCTURES MOVED TO THE PARK AND CURRENTLY LOCATED ON THE GROUNDS OF BRIERFIELD IRONWORKS PARK: 1. Ashby Post Office-Oakley, Lilly House (c. Moved from Ashby 2. Cahaba Trace Commission/Brierfield Ironworks Park Office Original vestibule, Brierfield Catholic Church in Brierfield. Moved from Brierfield in In a cyclone destroyed all but this portion of the church. This part was then moved to the bank of Mahan Creek and set up as an artist studio for Adelaide Mahan, daughter of Jesse Mahan. 3. Hayes, Wilson House (c. Frame farmhouse moved from Six Mile Creek area of Bibb County in 4. Jones, J. Henry General Store (c. Now serves as a mercantile store and photographer's studio Moved from Six Mile Creek in named for owner James Henry Jones. 5.

Lightsey Cabin Single-pen log structure built by Merchant family, served as a stage coach stop on the Tuscaloosa-Wetumpka Road Donated by Joe Lightsey family of Centerville who had removed it from its original location. Rented for overnight use Moved from Merchant's Crossing between Randolph and Maplesville in 6. Sims-Hubbard Log Cabin (c. Used for overnight rental Originally served as Little Page Sims Home 7. Billy Mitchell Cabin Scheduled to become a museum 8. Mulberry Baptist Church Moved from southern Bibb County in OTHER SITE IMPROVEMENTS: A variety of other improvements have been made to the Brierfield Ironworks Park site. These features include: 1. Gate House The Gate House is located on the western edge of the site at the entrance to the park. BRIERFIELD FURNACE HAER No.

AL-30 (Page 6) 2. Blue Grass Stage The Blue Grass Stage is located immediately to the north of the entrance road. 3. Amphitheater The amphitheater is located adjacent to and to the rear of the Brierfield Ironworks Park Office. 4. Musket Range and Pavilion The Musket Range lies on the northern edge of the park site. 5. Parking Lot A parking lot is situated to the east of Furnace Branch Creek. 6. Barbecue Shed A barbecue shed is located in the center of the park site. It contains tables and benches. 7. Swimming Pool/Pavilion A swimming pool and pavilion lie to the south of the entrance road. 8. Bath House A bath house is associated with the swimming pool facility. 9. Park Manager's Residence The park manager's residence is situated at the southern edge of the park site.

10.Road Network All structures and activities on the site are reached by travelling along a dirt road that winds through the park. CONDITION The base of Furnace No. 2, a large pile of bricks and foundations of associated structures, is in a state of ruin. Grass and brush cover the remains. Corners of the rolling mill have been established through an archaeological investigation. No archaeological work has been done to locate the nailery. The rolling mill site and right-of-way for the tramway are heavily overgrown, but identifiable. The cemetery, with white and black sections, and the superintendent's house are well-maintained. Due to recent acguisition of the property by Tannehill State Park, a master plan for site development has begun. BRIERFIELD FURNACE HAER NO.

AL-30 (Page 7) Sources Consulted Armes, Ethel, The Storv of Coal and Iron in Alabama, Ellison, Rhoda Coleman, Bibb County Alabama: The First Hundred Years, Everse, Martin, The Ironworks at Brierfield - A History of Ironmakina in Bibb County, Alabama. National Register, Field Visit with Mike Mahan, Parker, James W. and Curren, Cailup B. Brierfield Ironworks Park: An Archaeological Reconnaissance. Report on file at the Alabama Historical Commission, Stallworth, Clarke, "Early Iron Furnace Stirs State Pride," Envirosouth, Bibb County Site Survey. p. Woodward, Joseph H., Alabama Blast Furnaces, pp. Alabama, Report of Colonel James L Tait by James L. Tait, Commission of Industrial Resources, Montgomery: W. W. Screws, Berney, Saffold, Handbook of Alabama: A Complete Index of the State.

Mobile: Mobile Register Print, Hodgson, Joseph, The Alabama Manual. Montgomery: Mail Building,