1887

1887 was the 16th year after the founding of the city of Birmingham in 1871.

Events

• April 27: Leeds was incorporated.
• May 1: Ferdinand Neville was appointed the first full-time chief of the Birmingham Fire Department.
• August 6: The Magic City Guards were formally disbanded.
• August 17: A. H. Parker arrived in Birmingham.
• September 20: John Henry competed in a legendary contest against a steam hammer.
• Avondale was founded.
• Leeds was incorporated.
• Edward M. Tutwiler was married to the former Margaret Lee Chewning.
• Howard College moved to East Lake.
• Hall-Kent Elementary School was founded.
• The Birmingham Water Works completed a canal from Five Mile Creek to the North Birmingham Water Works pumping station, replacing Village Creek as a source of municipal water.
• The town of Highland was incorporated.

Business

• January 26: Woodward Furnace No. 2 was blown in.
• June 14: The East Lake Railroad began service.
• August 3: Rufus Rhodes published the first edition of The Daily Herald.
• Charles Ferguson founded the short-lived Blount Springs Herald Weekly.
• The Birmingham Southern Railroad was extended to Ensley.
• The Coalburg Coal and Coke Company was sold to the Sloss Iron and Steel Company.
• Parisian Dry Goods & Millinery Company was founded.
• The Birmingham Trust and Savings Company was founded.
• Loveman's department store opened its first location in downtown Birmingham.
• The Birmingham Chamber of Commerce was founded.
• Joseph Johnston was named president of the Sloss Iron & Steel Company.
• The Berney Bank of Bessemer was organized by William and Chollet Berney.
• Walter Brownell founded the Brownell Travel Bureau by organizing a 10-person trip to Switzerland.
• G. L. Anderson founded the G. L. Anderson Brass Works.
• Erskine Ramsay was hired by the Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company to superintend the Pratt Mines.

Individuals

Births

• February 21: B. O. Hargrove, Birmingham Fire Chief
• June 1: Ewart "Dixie" Walker, baseball pitcher
• June 6: Hubert Harper, political cartoonist
• August 4: Kelly Ingram, World War I hero
• November 19: Jack Nabors, baseball player
• December 8: Eddie Dent, baseball pitcher
• Charles Gardner, Jefferson County Deputy

Weddings

• March 7: Miriam Woodward to Sumter Bethea
• October 7: Mary R. Smith to George Cruikshank

Deaths

• September 10: Theophilus Jowers, furnace worker
• William Brodie, labor leader

Works

• James Mayfield developed the formula for Celery-Cola.

Books

• Atlas of the City of Birmingham and Suburbs by Beers, Ellis and Company
• Jefferson County and Birmingham, Alabama: Historical and Biographical by John Witherspoon Dubose

Buildings

• Avondale United Methodist Church
• Berney Brothers Block
• Bessemer Block
• John Dwyer residence
• East Lake United Methodist Church
• Ensley Hotel
• L & N Station on Morris Avenue
• McLester & Van Hoose expanded their warehouse on Morris Avenue

Sports

• The Birmingham Barons began playing professional baseball.

Context

1887 was the year of the first Groundhog Day in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. Anne Sullivan was hired to teach Helen Keller. Gottleib Daimler completed his first automobile. Queen Victoria celebrated her golden jubilee after 50 years on the throne. Flooding of the Yellow River in China killed 900,000. 1887 births include Chico Marx, Fatty Arbuckle, Marc Chagall, Shoeless Joe Jackson, Marcus Garvey, Le Corbusier, Chiang Kai-shek, and Georgia O'Keefe. Deaths included Henry Ward Beecher, Dorothea Dix, and Emma Lazarus.

1880s

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