1886

1886 was the 15th year after the founding of the City of Birmingham.

Events

• May 29: A fantastical report of an adventure on an underground river appeared in The Daily Age.
• The Birmingham Public Library was established, but quickly foundered.
• The Kansas City, Memphis & Birmingham Railroad and the Sheffield & Birmingham Railroad arrived in Jasper.
• The first organized celebration of Mardi Gras was held in Birmingham.
• Mineral Springs Park was established by the city of North Birmingham.
• The original Powell School building was damaged by fire and declared unsafe.
• The Relay House was demolished to make room for the new L & N Station.

Business

• February 3: The Caldwell Hotel was incorporated by officers of the Elyton Land Company.
• June 26: The Highland Avenue Railroad opened the first steam-powered dummy line in the South.
• September 28: The South-Side Land Company was incorporated.
• October 22: The Birmingham Paint, Glass and Wall Paper Company was incorporated.
• November: A new tile floor was installed in the lobby of the O'Brien Opera House as a gift from Charlie Pierce.
• December 8: Colonel Enoch Ensley became president of the Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company.
• Molton Realty Company was founded.
• What would become Southern Progress was founded with the publishing of the Progressive Farmer.

Religion

• January 2: Reverend Charles Burkart began delivering Lutheran sermons in Birmingham.
• July 31: The cornerstone of the first Temple Emanu-El building was laid.
• First Methodist Episcopal Church, South of Avondale was founded.
• Southside Baptist Church was formed.
• Eldred B. Teague became pastor of Ruhama Baptist Church.

Works

• "Sketches of Alabama" by Mary Gordon Duffee

Buildings

• Brookside mine
• Paul Hayne School
• Iron Age building
• St Clair County Courthouse addition/modification
• Slaton, McGlathery & Burwell warehouse
• The first St James United Methodist Church building
• Wylam Mines No. 1 and No. 2

Individuals

• December 1: Thomas Seay became Governor of Alabama.
• George Bodeker moved to Birmingham.
• First George Brewer and then N. D. Van Syckel became principal of Powell School.
• W. P. G. Harding began serving as assistant cashier of Berney National Bank.
• A. O. Pickard became Birmingham Fire Chief.
• Architect W. W. Rose left Birmingham.

Births

• February 27: Hugo Black, Supreme Court Justice
• April 23: Harry Coveleski, baseball player
• July 28: A. Clinton Decker, sanitation engineer and first Mayor of Fairfield
• October 4: Etoile Virginia Ashford
• Arthur Dycer, pastor

Marriages

• August 25: Edouard Sidel to Jeanne Legras in New Orleans, Louisiana
• November 30: Justice James Stiles to Mary C. Porter

Deaths

• Moses Fields, first white child born in Jefferson County

1880s

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