1900

1900 was the 29th year after the founding of the City of Birmingham.

Events

Andrew Beard courtesy BPL Archives

• February 20: 1900 Ensley municipal election.
• March 27: Birmingham Police Department officers George Kirkley and J. W. Adams were the city's first to be killed in the line of duty.
• May 28: Birmingham was darkened by a total eclipse of the sun in the morning.
• August 7-8: The 1900 Peters Cartidge Co. Tournament trap-shooting competition was held in Birmingham.
• September: Industrial High School opened.
• October 24: Andrew Beard applied for his first "Automatic car-coupling" patent.
• October 28: 8-month-old Annie Cleveland was the first burial at Elmwood Cemetery.
• December: William J. Samford became Governor of Alabama.
• The Alabama Insane Hospital was renamed Bryce State Mental Hospital.
• The Birmingham Carnival Society put on their final evening Mardi Gras parade.
• A fire numerous homes and businesses in Brookside.
• Cardiff, East Lake, and Wylam were incorporated.
• The Country Club of Birmingham moved to the site of the former Lakeview Park and Southern Female Institute.
• Lakeview Pavilion was torn down to build the Highland Park Golf Course.
• Hugh Morrow was elected to the Alabama State Senate.
• The Quid pro Quo Club was founded.
• St Vincent's Hospital moved to it's current location.
• The Semper Fidelis Club was founded.

Business

• January 1: The first load of steel was shipped from the Ensley Works.
• March 1: A predecessor of the No. 7 Wylam-Bush Hills streetcar line began operating between Birmingham and Owenton (Birmingham-Southern College).
• June: The Alabama Coal Operators Association was created.
• November 15: Ensley Furnace No. 5 was blown in.
• The Bank of Ensley opened.
• The Citizens Bank of Alexander City was founded.
• The first Bromberg's opened in Birmingham.
• B. H. Cooper opened his own furniture store.
• Heralds of Liberty and Marx & Co. were founded.
• The Alabama Brewing Company expanded with a cold-storage and ice plant in Gadsden.
• George Brownell succeeded his father as president of Brownell Travel.
• The Steward Machine Co. was founded.
• Edgar Martin founded the Martin Cracker Co.

Religion

• February 11: Ensley Baptist Church was organized.
• December: W. T. Andrews became pastor of Avondale United Methodist Church.
• Robert Barnwell became the third Episcopal Bishop of Alabama.
• Henry Heise became pastor of Zion Lutheran Church.
• Simon Klotz became president of Temple Emanu-El.
• St Mark's School awarded its first high school diploma.
• James M. Shelburne became pastor of Ruhama Baptist Church.

Sports

• Auburn defeated Alabama by a score of 53-5 in the Iron Bowl.

Individuals

• September 1: Andrew W. Burgin became Jefferson County Sheriff.
• November 26: Gus Jebeles (shopkeeper) arrived at New York Harbor from Greece.
• Robert F. Cox became Shelby County Sheriff.
• Russell Cunningham became Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Alabama, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons.
• Daniel Greene was elected an associate criminal court judge for the 10th Judicial Circuit of Alabama.
• Henry Walthall went to New York City to become an actor.

Cooper Green in 1922

Births

• January 14: Frank Merritt, theater owner
• March 17: William Shortridge, funeral director
• April 11: Donald Beatty, aviator, explorer, and inventor
• March 31: Mule Suttles, baseball player
• July 10: William Rushton Jr, president of the Protective Life Corporation
• September 8: Preuit Holland Sr, principal of Avondale Elementary School
• November 7: Hobart Grooms, federal judge
• November 8: Margaret Mitchell, author
• November 18: Cooper Green, President of the Birmingham City Commission
• John C. Fletcher, pastor

Graduations

• Courtney Shropshire, M.D. from University of Tennessee in Nashville
• David O. Whilldin, degree in architectural drafting from Drexel Institute

Marriages

• June 27: William Brandon to Elizabeth Nabors.
• November 27: Dian Holzer to Leo Steiner.
• Isaac Beatty, Jr to the former Hughie Duffee.
• John C. Forney to the former Anne Bonholzer.
• Jere King to the former Martha Munford.

Deaths

• March 27: Birmingham Police Department officers George Kirkley and J. W. Adams were killed in a shootout following a robbery of the Standard Oil office. They were the department's first to lose their lives in the line of duty.
• September 1: Photographer D. C. Redington died from a stroke of apoplexy (cerebrovascular accident).
• November 26: Banker Paul Earle died in Maryland.
• November 29: Brewer Erwin Schillinger died at age 38 from Bright's disease (acute nephritis)
• J. M. Watson, pastor of First Christian Church

Works

Buildings

The Hillman Hotel, c. 1906

• 1910 1st Avenue North
• Walter Agee residence
• City Federation of Colored Woman's Clubs House
• SS. Cyril & Methodius Rectory in Brookside
• Ensley City Hall
• Hillman Hotel
• Ruth Jackson Cottage
• Jefferson Theatre
• R. F. McKibbon residence
• Moore School
• Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic School on 6th Avenue South
• St Vincent's Hospital
• Dolphus Shields residence
• The first Wylam School
• Hayes-Davis residence on Center Street North.

Context

In 1900, the Second Boer War, Boxer Rebellion, and Philippine–American War were ongoing. The Gold Standard Act was ratified in the U.S. Hawaii became an official U.S. territory. The second modern Olympic Games took place in Paris. Australia was founded. A powerful hurricane hit Galveston, Texas killing about 8,000 people.

Notable books published in 1900 included The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum, Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad, Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser, Three Men on the Bummel by Jerome K. Jerome, London to Ladysmith via Pretoria by Winston Churchill, and The Interpretation of Dreams (German: Die Traumdeutung) by Sigmund Freud. Notable music released included "A Bird in a Gilded Cage" by Arthur J. Lamb & Harry Von Tilzer, "The Flight Of The Bumble Bee" by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, and the opera Louise by Gustave Charpentier.

Notable births in 1900 included those of actor Spencer Tracy, inventor Charles Francis Richter, composer Aaron Copland, Nazi official Rudolf Höss, and dancer Sammy Davis Jr. Notable deaths included those of railroad engineer Casey Jones, philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, and writer Oscar Wilde.

1900s

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