Bibb County
Item
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Title
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Bibb County
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Source Type
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Newspapers
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Publisher
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Encyclopedia of Alabama. Alabama Humanities Foundation. Auburn University Outreach
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Publication Place
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Auburn, AL
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Publication Date
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6/28/2007
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Transcript
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Bibb County was created through an act of the Alabama Territorial Legislature on February 7, 1818, a year before Alabama became a state. Originally called Cahaba County, for the river that runs through it, the county was renamed Bibb County in 1820 to honor of the first governor of Alabama, William Wyatt Bibb. Before settlers moved to the area, it was populated by the Creeks of the Upper Towns, who lived along the banks of the Cahaba and its tributaries. In 1815, non-Indian squatters began moving into the area, and Centreville was made the county seat of government. Bibb County was extremely rich in ore, coal, clay, and timber, and during the early nineteenth century, local entrepreneurs established several small iron forges in the north and northeastern areas of the county. Oxmoor Furnace in Blocton was the first to produce pig iron in the state. By the 1850s, Bibb County ranked third in the state in iron production, which made the region extremely valuable to the Confederacy during the Civil War. Brierfield Ironworks was established in 1861 and purchased by the Confederate government two years later to produce iron for military use; it was later burned by Union troops under the command of Gen. James H. Wilson. After the Civil War, Bibb County experienced significant economic and social turmoil, as almost half the population in 1865 consisted of former slaves. The Reconstruction years were characterized by increasing violence against blacks, increasing poverty, and lawlessness. In the late nineteenth century, the area experienced a boom in the lumber and coal mining industries, and a number of immigrant families from Belgium, Italy, Austria, Hungary, and Bulgaria moved to the area. Dangerous conditions in the mines drew workers'-rights advocates from the United Mine Workers, who led Bibb County miners in strikes in 1894, 1904, 1908, and 1920. The plight of the miners attracted the attention of national labor leader Eugene V. Debs, who spoke to crowds in Blocton in 1896. The area received an economic boost in 1898 when a branch of the Mobile and Ohio Railroad was completed in the southeastern part of the county. During the nineteenth century, farming and iron manufacturing were the prevailing industries in Bibb County. Abundant mineral deposits in the northern section of the county made it an important center of manufacturing, and the Confederacy purchased Brierfield Iron works in 1863 to aid the southern war effort. After it was burned by Union forces in 1865, Josiah Gorgas became one of many who tried in vain to revive the iron industry in the county. By 1900, the booming industries of Birmingham eclipsed the area. Given the county's heavily forested areas, which include pine, especially loblolly, as well as oak, hickory, walnut, tulip poplar, gum, cedar, and dogwood, the lumber business rapidly became highly profitable.