New Birmingham, Texas
New Birmingham, Texas was a planned iron-making center in Cherokee County, Texas, now a ghost town.
New Birmingham was founded in 1887 by Anderson Blevins, a sewing machine salesman from Alabama. He took note of the outcroppings of iron ore in the vicinity of Rusk and convinced local investors to form a development company. Additional capital from St Louis and New York allowed the firm to reorganize as the New Birmingham Iron and Land Company. In the fall of 1887 the company purchased 20,000 acres of land and began construction of two 50-ton furnaces, dubbed the "Tassie Belle" and the "Star and Crescent" which were soon producing pig iron at $11 a ton. A pipe works and brick kiln were also constructed and, along with a timber enterprise, enabled the town to quickly emerge from the pine forest. A coal-fired electric generating plant was soon completed and an ice factory provided creature comforts. A railway depot, banks, a schoolhouse, a weekly newspaper and the Southern Hotel helped complete the picture of a boomtown.
Two factors led the town to failure in the 1890s, however. The "Alien Land Law of Texas" endorsed by Governor James Hogg choked off any possibility of major overseas investment and the Panic of 1893 collapsed the market for pig iron. Residents also gave credit to a curse placed on the town by an enraged widow.
A materials and logistics company founded in Rusk in 2005 calls itself New Birmingham, Inc.
References
- Kombos, Thanasis (January 16, 2010) "New Birmingham's rapid rise and fall." Jacksonville (Texas) Daily Progress