1899

1899 was the 28th year after the founding of the City of Birmingham.

Events

Mel Drennen became Mayor of Birmingham in 1899

• February: A blizzard caused the postponement of Mardi Gras festivities to May.
• February 12: Ensley was incorporated.
• February 21: Five miners were killed in the 1899 Blocton No. 2 Mine explosion.
• February 23: The Alabama Legislature chartered the Alabama Boys Industrial School at East Lake.
• February 23: The legislature revoked the 1897 incorporation of Rosedale.
• May: "Carnival", postponed from February, was held.
• The Agricultural and Mechanical College of Alabama was renamed the Alabama Polytechnic Institute.
• Brookside suffered a typhoid outbreak and was struck by a tornado.
• Cunningham Hospital opened.
• McElwain School was organized.
• A temporary school board was selected to plan a new building for Moore School.
• A. H. Parker was re-hired as a 7th grade instructor at the Lane School.
• Joseph Riley Smith donated $5,000 toward the construction of St Vincent's Hospital.
• The Tuxedo Park community was platted.
• Ragland and Warrior was incorporated.
• A well-driller for the Alabama Brewing Company at Avenue E and 22nd Street hit a seam of natural gas, which was tapped for use in the brewery.

Business

• March 3: Birmingham Southern Railroad was organized.
• May 10: The Bank of Ensley was incorporated.
• May 16: Andrew Beard was granted a patent (no. 624,901) for railcar coupling.
• November 23: The first heat of steel was tapped at the Ensley Works.
• Truman Aldrich became a vice-president of the Birmingham Machinery and Foundry Company.
• The Birmingham Board of Trade was formed.
• T. G. Bush became president of the Shelby Iron Company.
• A. L. Fulenwider and Henry Badham sold the O'Brien Opera House to Joseph R. Smith, Jr and Charles J. Smith for $75,000.
• The Grasselli Chemical Company acquired a 100-acre parcel near Hillman for a new chemical works.
• William Pettiford became president of the Alabama Penny Savings Bank.
• Louis Pizitz founded the Louis Pizitz Dry Goods Company.
• John Rountree added The Dixie Manufacturer to his magazine holdings.
• The Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company purchased the Ensley Land Company.
• The United States Cast Iron Pipe and Foundry Company was formed out of the merger of 12 companies and 14 plants located in eight states.
• Rick Woodward became general superintendent of Woodward Iron Company.
• The J. C. Mayfield Manufacturing Company was founded in Birmingham to manufacture Celery-Cola syrup.
• George Edwards established a lumber business in Bessemer.

Government

• April 3: J. H. Weldon won Wilsonville's first mayoral election.
• June 1: An Anti-Spitting Law went into effect in Birmingham.
• Mel Drennen became Mayor of Birmingham.
• Ensley held its first municipal election.

Religion

• The Knesseth Israel Congregation was organized.
• The Salvation Army Birmingham Area Command was established.
• Charles Brooks became pastor of St Mark's Episcopal Church.

Sports

• April 1: The Birmingham Golf Club course opened for play.
• The Alabama Crimson Tide football team resumed play after a ban on student athletes traveling away from campus was lifted.

Individuals

Wallace Rayfield in 1911

• Lucille Douglass and Ulysses Mason moved to Birmingham.
• Charles Ferguson became a solicitor to the 10th Judicial Circuit of Alabama.
• Hill Ferguson left the Birmingham Age-Herald to join the insurance firm of Louis V. Clark & Company.
• Charles B. Glenn became principal of Paul Hayne School.
• Wallace Rayfield became director of the Architectural and Mechanical Drawing Department at Tuskegee Industrial and Normal Institute.
• Junius L. Walthall became Shelby County Sheriff.
• Charles Whelan, Jr became Birmingham City Physician.
• Russian-born Simon Goldstein emigrated to the United States.

Howard Hill in a promotional photo for Tembo (1950)

Births

• February 17: Peahead Walker, football coach
• April 19: James Saxon Childers, novelist
• November 13: Howard Hill, archer
• November 22: Howell Vines, writer
• December 16: Eleanor Bridges, artist and civic activist
• R. C. Foster, miner and singer

Graduations

• Wallace Rayfield, bachelor of architecture from Columbia University
• Elizabeth White, from Birmingham Medical College

Marriages

• February 14: Henry Milner to Helen Bishop
• Richard McNally married the former Nellie Farinas.
• Louis Pizitz married the former Minnie Smolian.

Awards

• Mardi Gras Royals: Rex Vulcan IV Henry Milner, Queen of Mardi Gras Mary Claire Milner

Works

Buildings

• Avondale Elementary School expansion
• The first Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, Rosedale church building
• The Briary house
• Loveman, Joseph and Loeb building expansion
• S. H. Kress & Co. store on 3rd Avenue North

Context

In 1899, Spanish rule ended in Cuba. The United States took possession of Wake Island. The Philippine-American War began. The Great Blizzard of 1899 brought freezing temperatures and snow as far south as southern Florida. The First Hague Peace Conference took place. The Newsboys Strike takes place when the Newsies of New York go on strike. The Second Boer War began. The Bronx Zoo opened in New York City.

Notable books published in 1899 included Father Goose: His Book by L. Frank Baum, The Awakening by Kate Chopin, Heart of Darkness (serialized) by Joseph Conrad, The Monster and Other Stories by Stephen Crane, and Resurrection by Leo Tolstoy. Notable music released included "Hello! Ma Baby" by Ida Emerson & Joseph E. Howard, "Maple Leaf Rag" by Scott Joplin, Verklärte Nacht by Arnold Schoenberg, and the Cendrillon ballet by Jules Massenet.

Notable births in 1899 included those of gangster Al Capone, actress Gloria Swanson, animator Walter Lantz, musician Duke Ellington, dancer and actor Fred Astaire, writer E. B. White, actor James Cagney, author Ernest Hemingway, film director Alfred Hitchcock, playwright & composer Noel Coward, and actor Humphrey Bogart. Notable deaths included those of composer Johann Strauss II, orator Robert G. Ingersoll, industrialist Charles Alfred Pillsbury, shipbuilder and philanthropist William H. Webb, and evangelist Dwight L. Moody.

1890s

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