Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > The Lighter Side
ROAD TRIP: A BBM Game
Fran:
Notikewin, AB
MaineWriter:
New Birmingham, TX
New Birmingham, in Cherokee County, was supposed to be the third industrial metropolis to bear that name. The two other Birminghams, one in England and one in Alabama, had shown how the availability of iron ore could build a city where not even a town had been before.
The dreamer in the case of New Birmingham, Texas, was Alexander B. Blevins, a sewing-machine salesman who knew what had happened in the northern part of his native state of Alabama when northern industrialists invested capital to develop the iron industry there.
In the 1880s Blevins discovered that iron ore was abundant in Cherokee County and was already mined to supply a foundry at the Rusk Penitentiary. So he dreamed a big dream: a "New" Birmingham, perhaps even larger than the one in Alabama.
Blevins organized the Cherokee Land and Iron Company with the assistance of capitalists W.H. Hammons, James A. Mahoney, and Robert Van Wych. They leased 20,000 acres and began mining even while they built a fifty-ton furnace that Blevins named the Tassie Belle after his wife.
New Birmingham was laid out near the Kansas and Gulf Short Line Railroad. In addition to the furnace, the town soon claimed 2,000 residents who enjoyed the services of a bank, saloons, a newspaper, even the five-story Southern Hotel. Industries included a sash and door factory, a wagon and plow works, an iron pipe factory, and an electric generating plant. New Birmingham, "The Iron Queen of the Southwest," seemed well on its way to prosperity and permanence.
It was not to be. The dreamers had attempted too much too soon, and when the Panic of 1893 deprived them of new capital necessary to continuing developing until profits sufficient to sustain the furnace were earned, they were hard pressed to continue.
An attempt to involve English capitalists in the venture fell through because of Texas' Alien Land Law, and in 1890 Hammons was killed by a New Birmingham businessman. Then a fire destroyed the furnace, forcing the lay off of over 300 workers.
People moved away, businesses closed, and by 1896 only 200 residents, barely ten percent of the population less than five years before, remained. The post office closed in 1906.
Most of the buildings in New Birmingham were scavenged during the First World War to provide materials for construction in Rusk, and the hotel, the last building left standing, was destroyed by fire in 1926. Even the rubble of the old hotel was removed in 1932 during the construction of a highway.
The Birmingham in Alabama developed into the largest city in that state while the Birmingham in Texas disappeared, remembered now because of a historical marker. Even so, it reminds us that once there was a dream.
Leslie
Meryl:
Muddy Gap, WY
jpwagoneer1964:
Pierce, Texas is located along the former railroad tracks, which have been taken up in recent years. The roadbed is still in place although the line had been abandoned in 1940. The towns along this stretch of Highway 59 were named after the Hungerford/ Telferner families.
"Colonel" Hungerford was a Mexican War veteran with two daughters - Edna and Louise.
Louise married, widowed, and had a child named Eva. Her next husband was named Mackay who had made a fortune in mining in Colorado. Louise Mackay took her daughters to Europe where daughter Edna married an Italian Count named Telferner. With Mackay's money and 600 of Telferner's paisanos to do the work, they formed the New York, Texas and Mexican Railway. The locals named it the "Macaroni Line" from the diet of the Italian laborers.
Pierce-Arrow another of my favorite automakers build very high end luxury automobiles until 1938.
The ancestor of Pierce-Arrow was the George N. Pierce Company, founded by George N. Pierce (1846-1911) of Buffalo, New York, which various products including bicycles and bird-cages. In 1901, he started the George N. Pierce Motor Company, producing a small single-cylinder runabout under license from de Dion-Bouton, the Pierce, with some modest success.
In 1903 he decided to concentrate on making a larger more luxurious auto for the upscale market, and the Pierce Arrow was born. This proved Pierce's most successful product, and these solidly built cars with powerful engines gained much positive publicity by winning various auto races. During this period, Pierce's high-end products were sometimes advertised as the Great Arrow. In 1908 Pierce Motor was renamed The Pierce-Arrow Motor Car Company.
In 1909, U.S. President William Howard Taft ordered two Pierce-Arrows to be used for state occasions, the first official automobiles of the White House. An open bodied Pierce-Arrow carried Woodrow Wilson and Warren G. Harding to Harding?s 1921 inaugural.
In 1914, Pierce-Arrow adopted its most enduring styling hallmark when the headlights of the vehicle were moved from the traditional placement to either side of the radiator into flared housings molded into the front fenders of the car. This gave the car an immediate visual identification from the side; at night it gave the car the appearance a widen stance. Pierce trademarked this placement and it remained in place until final model in 1938. Hence it is only beginning with the 1939 model year that other American car manufacturers put the headlights in the fenders. Through 1914 Pierce-Arrow also produced a line of motorcycles.
The Pierce-Arrow was a status symbol, owned by many top Hollywood stars, corporate tycoons; royalty of many foreign nations had at least one Pierce-Arrow in their collections. In American luxury cars it was rivaled only by the Peerless and Packard, which collectively received the accolade Three P's of Motordom. Industrial efficiency expert Frank Bunker Gilbreth (Cheaper by the Dozen) extolled the virtues of Pierce-Arrow, in both quality and in its ability to safely transport his large family.
Pierce-Arrow advertisements were artistic and understated. Unusually for automobile advertising, the image of the car was in the background rather than the foreground of the picture. Usually only a portion of the automobile was visible. The Pierce-Arrow was always depicted in elegant settings.
In 1928, Studebaker acquired a controlling interest in Pierce-Arrow. Studebaker's President, Alfred Erskine had hoped that adding the prestigious product would allow Studebaker to compete with the likes of Packard and Cadillac for a portion of the luxury car market. Under Studebaker?s ownership, Pierce maintained virtual autonomy over its product and product development. Approaching bankruptcy in 1933, Studebaker sold out their interest in Pierce-Arrow to a group of Buffalo businessmen after the South Bend, Indiana automobile company was placed under receivership.
In 1933, the company unveiled the radically streamlined Silver Arrow at the New York Auto Show; the car was well received by the public and the motoring press. The car was announced with the phrase "Suddenly it's 1940!" and Pierce sold five examples of this car priced at $10,000 dollars apiece. The company subsequently issued a production model named "Silver Arrow", however it failed to incorporate many of the features of the show car and failed to generate sufficient sales for the company.
Starting in 1936 Pierce-Arrow produced a line of camper-trailers, the Pierce-Arrow Travelodge. Pierce was the only luxury brand that did not field a lower price car (eg Packard 110) to provide cash flow, and without sales or funds for development, the company declared insolvency in 1938 and closed its doors. The final Pierce Arrow assembled was built by Karl Wise, the firms Chief Engineer, from parts secured from the companies receivers. Pierce's holding were sold at auction on Friday, May 13, 1938.
The Rio Grande Southern Railroad converted five Pierce-Arrow automobiles (and a couple of Buicks) into motorized railcars, effectively buses and trucks on rail wheels. The nickname Galloping Goose was soon applied to these vehicles, based on their waddling motion and honking horn. All still survive.
Mark
Fran:
Edwand, AB
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