Brierfield Furnace - Brierfield, AL - U.S. National Register of Historic Places on Waymarking.com

In 1861, Caswell Campbell Huckabee of Greensboro and Jonathan Newton Smith of Six Mile joined with Samuel Green Wilson of Tuscaloosa County, J.D. Nance of Bibb County and Gray Huckabee of New Bern to develop the Brierfield Furnace on land near the Little Cahaba River. It was initially known as the Bibb County Iron Company. A 36-foot tall stone blast furnace was built followed by a rolling mill in 1862. Cast iron was initially produced, but soon the more profitable wrought iron was made. The iron was quite often sold to local farmers and cotton planters who needed the metal for plows and other farm implements.

Because of the high quality of the iron produced at Brierfield, the Confederacy pressured a sale of the Bibb County Iron Company to the Confederacy for $600,000 in 1863. Included in the deal were nine slaves, seventy mules, forty-one oxen, twenty carts, twenty wheelbarrows and two hundred axes. It was renamed the Bibb Naval Furnace.

The Confederate States of America (CSA) spent large sums of money expanding and improving the works. The rolling mill was completed and a new, larger forty foot furnace was added near the site of the original stone stack. Some time later, a small gauge railroad was constructed connecting the rolling mill and furnace site with the main line of the Alabama and Tennessee River Railroad.

The Bibb works supplied iron for the Confederate arsenal at Selma during through the summer and fall of 1864 and the winter of 1865. One hundred large naval Brooke cannons were produced in Selma with only Brierfield iron during this time.

On March 22, 1865 Major General James H. Wilson left Gravely Springs on the Tennessee River with over 13,000 troopers, destroying everything of military significance in their path, arriving in Montevallo on March 30. The next morning, the Tenth Missouri Cavalry under the command of Colonel Fredrick Benteen, was assigned the task of demolishing the Bibb County Ironworks.

After the war ended, General Josiah Gorgas, Chief of Ordinance for the Confederate States of America founded the Canebrake Company with Francis Strother Lyon from Demopolis, Dr. Bryan Whitfield, Daniel Prout, Edwin Glover, John Collins, James Browder, Frank Griffin and William Ross. In October, 1866 the Canebrake Company bought the Bibb County Iron Company from the government for $45,000 in 1866. Production resumed in November 1866. The furnace blew-out on July 18, 1867 and the rolling mill was soon shut down.

In 1869 the facility was leased to Thomas Alvis and made a decent profit until the national panic of 1873 when Alvis and his partner, Thomas Furguson, went bankrupt. The entire operation was idle from 1873 until May 1881 when Alexander Sheppard and William and Kearsley Carter purchased the company from the Canebrake Company. The new owners sold the furnace to Thomas Peter in mid-1882. Peter bu Huckabee purchased the rolling mill in 1883. The furnace at Brierfield Coal and Iron Company blew out on December 24, 1894. The blow out, combined with the invention of the wire nail, ended production of iron at Brierfield.

Just the base of a furnace remains on site. It is under cover and fenced off from the public but is in view from some informational signs.

Street address: 240 Furnace Parkway Brierfield, AL USA 35035 County / Borough / Parish: Bibb County Year listed: 1974 Historic (Areas of) Significance: Event Periods of significance: 1875-1899, 1850-1874 Historic function: Industry/Processing/Extraction Current function: Agriculture/Subsistence, Commerce/Trade, Landscape Privately owned?: yes Primary Web Site: [Web Link] Season start / Season finish: Not listed Hours of operation: Not listed Secondary Website 1: Not listed Secondary Website 2: Not listed National Historic Landmark Link: Not listed

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