Tannehill Ironworks
The Tannehill Ironworks, also known as the Roupes Valley Iron Company is a historical iron furnace near Bessemer. One of the first iron making operations in the Birmingham District, the ironworks are an Alabama state historic site and are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Tannehill was a major supplier of iron for Confederate ordnance. Remains of the old furnaces are the central attraction of Tannehill Ironworks Historical State Park located 12 miles south of Bessemer off I-59/20 near the southern end of the Appalachian Mountains.
The 1,500-acre historical park also includes the John Wesley Hall Grist Mill, May Plantation Cotton Gin House and the Iron & Steel Museum of Alabama.
History
Ironmaking in Roupes Valley began with construction of a bloomery forge by Daniel Hillman in 1830. Utilizing brown iron ore from the site, he was able to produce as much as 300 pounds of iron per day, much of which was fashioned there at the forge into horseshoes and other implements. Hillman died in 1832 and forge was abandoned for eight years until the property was purchased in 1840 by plantation owner Ninian Tannehill, who had already bought a few other foundries and was expanding his iron-making enterprise. He continued to operate and expand the foundry works until he sold the property to John Alexander in 1857. Alexander kept the operation under the management of experienced furnace master Moses Stroup, who had worked for Tannehill since 1855.
Stroup began building the first blast furnace at Tannehill around 1859. The 31'-9" high sandstone furnace had a capacity of perhaps 5-6 tons per day. Stroup built a new cast house and foundry, powered by a water wheel on Roupes Creek. The entire plant was constructed, supplied and operated by slave labor. Around 50 or 60 of the slaves lived in cabins near the site. Shortly after the new furnace was put into blast in 1861 the property was sold to William L. Sanders. Stroup, who was already adding two new blast furnaces to the expanding operation, left a few months later to assist in the construction of the new Oxmoor furnace.
Sanders, a former merchant from Selma, oversaw the completion of the second and third furnaces under an 1863 contract with the Confederate Government in Richmond, Virginia. A collapse in the first furnace slowed his efforts, but, with an injection of cash from Richmond and the installation of a steam engine to replace the water wheel, the works eventually was able to produced about 22 tons of pig iron per day at peak output. Due to the need for frequent repairs and difficulties with transporting the iron, the operation struggled, however, to meet its quarterly quota of 1000 tons. The cast pigs were hauled by ox-cart to Montevallo where they were loaded onto trains bound for the Confederate Naval Gun Works and Arsenal in Selma. Foundry products such as kettles and other utensils, were made on site and delivered as needed to Confederate quartermasters.
The Tannehill works had a significant influence on the later development of the Birmingham iron and steel industry. An experiment conducted at Tannehill in 1862 proved red iron ore could successfully be used in Alabama blast furnaces. The test, promoted by South & North Railroad developers, led to the location of government-financed ironworks in the immediate Birmingham area, specifically Oxmoor and Irondale in Jefferson County.
The Tannehill furnaces and its adjacent foundry were attacked and burnt by three companies of the U.S. 8th Iowa Cavalry on March 31, 1865 during Wilson's Raid. The ruins remain today as one the best preserved 19th century iron furnace sites in the South.
The furnaces' remains, including reconstructed portions, are an American Society for Metals international historic landmark and have been designated as a Civil War Discovery Trail site. The park attracted over 425,000 visitors in 2005.
References
- Armes, Ethel (1910) The Story of Coal and Iron in Alabama Birmingham: University of Alabama Press. Reprinted 1972 Book-Keepers Press
- Bennett, James R. (2005) Tannehill and the Growth of the Alabama Iron Industry. Alabama Historic Ironworks Commission, 2nd Edition.
- Toner, MIke (July 9, 2007) "Cabins prove slaves were Alabama's early iron workers." Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
External links
- Tannehill Historical State Park website
- Tannehill Furnaces at the Alabama Ironworks Source Book