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UPDATED WITH POD CAST – Brierfield State Park in Alabama was once a Boom Town [old photographs]

This is a beautiful State Park south of Birmingham and a wonderful place for a picnic or outing. They have saved and restored many old homes that can now be rented for lodges and camping. 

The Boom Town of Brierfield

(Brierfield is now a Historic State Park)

Brierfield, Alabama was once a booming mining town, on the Southern Railway in the eastern part of Bibb County. It is located on the Little Cahaba River, near the Chilton County line and is in the richest part of the coal and iron ore deposits of Bibb County. It is also near valuable outcrops of marble and limestone. The population in 1880 was 800 and by 1910, 1000.

Brierfield Baptist Church, Hwy 139, Brierfield, Bibb County, Alabama

 Brierfield Baptist Church, Hwy 139, Brierfield, Bibb County, Alabama

This point was settled by a group of General Jackson’s soldiers under the leadership of J. Mahan, returning from the victory of New Orleans, to their homes in Tennessee. The Mahans, Fanchers, Massingales, Linzeys, Ragans and Smiths returned from Tennessee with their families and made their homes in the vicinity. Major Mahan’s grave is in the old cemetery, on Joseph R. Smith’s farm, today, and it bears date 1820.

Brierfield Grist Mill on Mahan Creek, photo taken ca. 1890

Brierfield Grist Mill on Mahan Creek, photo taken ca. 1890

The group of pioneer settlers lived first in tents, and then in log houses. The old Mahan home is still standing on the site of the Indian town, which formerly occupied the present site. The Mahans, father and sons, evidently were the first to discover the presence of coal at Brierfield. In 1851, Edward Mahan and Jonathan Ware sent an exhibit of iron, from their Bibb County forges to an exposition at Sydenham, England. This iron took first prize over all charcoal iron “blooms,” from many quarters of the world.

Brierfield, old furnace, photo at State of Alabama Archives

Brierfield, old furnace, photo at State of Alabama Archives

 Mahan Creek is in the foreground of the picture below. Herman Pfaff, president of Southern Mineral Land Company, lived in the house with his family ca. 1900 – photo at Alabama State Archives

Mahan Creek is in the foreground. Herman Pfaff, president of Southern Mineral Land Company, lived in the house with his family ca. 1900 - photo at Alabama State Archives

“Documentary research and physical evidence indicates that the subject house was constructed circa 1882 as the Superintendent’s House for the Brierfield Coal and Iron Company. The first occupant is thought to have been Thomas Jefferson Peter, part owner and president of the company. It is one of the only two surviving frame buildings from what at one time was an industrial complex encompassing an ironworks, a rolling mill, a nail mill, a coal washer, and as many as 140 workers’ dwellings. The house was later expanded, possibly circa 1897, during its occupancy by Herman Pfaff, president of the Southern Mineral Land Company.” The house was still standing in 2009. (see pictures of it at: Brierfield Coal and Iron Company Superintendant’s House)

Bibb Furnace at Brierfield, Alabama ca. 1900

Brierfield, Bibb Furnace at Brierfield, Alabama ca. 1900

Brierfield-Iron-Furnace-in-Bibb-county 1900

Brierfield-Iron-Furnace-in-Bibb-county 1900

Annie Pfaff and others, seated on a rock beside Mahan Creek at Brierfield, Alabama ca. 1900, photo at Alabama State Archieves

Annie Pfaff and others, seated on a rock beside Mahan Creek at Brierfield, Alabama ca. 1900, photo at Alabama State Archieves

 An unknown young woman, Annie Pfaff, and Adelaide Mahan at Brierfield, Alabama, ca. 1900

Unknown young woman, Annie Pfaff, and Adelaide Mahan at Brierfield, Alabama, ca. 1900

Herman Pfaff, president of Southern Mineral and Land Company lying in Hammock outside his home in Brierfield, ca. 1900 

Herman Pfaff, president of Southern MIneral and Land Company lying in Hammock outside his home in Brierfiled, ca. 1900

See Historical Books by Donna R Causey

In 1863, Jesse Mahan, son of Edward, donated his mines, furnace and rolling mill at Brierfield to the Confederate cause. The product of the Brierfield Furnace “astonished the world,” and was used in making the great guns, both for land and naval use. It was pronounced “the best for strength, malleability, fluxibility and fine texture of fibre.” The Brierfield plant was destroyed in 1865, by Federal cavalry under Wilson. In Armes’ “Story of Coal and Iron in Alabama” is a beautiful picture of the ruins of Brierfield, as left by the enemy.

Brierfield, Broken dam on the Little Cahaba River, where iron was made before the Civil War

Brierfield, Broken dam on the Little Cahaba River, where iron was made before the Civil War

Brierfield-Railroad-Depot-ca.-1900 from Alabama State Archives

Brierfield-Railroad-Depot-ca.-1900 from Alabama State Archives

 Edna Bayne Pfaff and her son, Ross, at the railroad depot in Brierfield, Alabama ca. 1900

Edna Bayne Pfaff and her son, Ross, at the railroad depot in Brierfield, Alabama ca. 1900

In 1866, Brierfield was seized as contraband of war and sold at auction. Frances Strother Lyon purchased the property and formed a company to reconstruct it, with Gen. Josiah Gorgas, Messrs. Crawford, Browder, Glover, Prout and Collins as associates. The company placed Giles Edwards in charge of the work. By 1868 the plant was in full blast, and known as The Strother Furnace, named in honor of the mother of Mr. Lyon. In 1873, the financial panic caused the furnace to close down until 1880.

This property passed into the possession of T. J. Peters, who remodeled the furnace and rolling mill, built a large nail factory, coke ovens and a washer.

Brierfield-Iron-Furnace-in-Bibb-county-1990

 Brierfield-Iron-Furnace-in-Bibb-county-1990

SOURCES:

  1. Armes, Story of coal and iron in Alabama (1910), pp. 24, 25, 71, 144, 171, 194, 204, 207, 326, 328, 499, 500.
  2. Alabama State Archives
  3. Brierfield Coal and Iron Company Superintendent’s House

Additional books on the Mahan family can be found in A Collection of Perry County Alabama Pioneers Biographies, Genealogy Reports Volume I

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24 comments

  1. […] an existing iron works at Brierfield, Alabama, and his family joined him there. The years in Brierfield were happy for the family. The other directors appointed him to manage the iron works and he moved […]

  2. is this Tannehill park ???????

    1. No, this is close to Montevallo.

    2. Go south to hyway 25 Briarfield is in Bibb co

  3. Rita Beaton this is not Tannehill, it is Brierfield State Park. My family had relatives who lived in Brierfield and I remember as a child playing in the waters of Mahan Creek, the water was always so clear and so cold, even in the summer heat.

  4. Have relatives in the area. We would visit when we went to Bessemer to visit my grandmother.

  5. looks like a wonderful place to camp i have family in helena ala

  6. looks like a cool park to spend a day

  7. I’ve busted my butt for longer than you’d believe trying not to live in a 1800’s house.

  8. Very interesting facts about the place I’ve lived my whole 20 years of living! So proud to say Dr. Mike Mahan with Mahan Creek Dental is a great family friend of ours that I will always cherish! Still lots more to see. I encourage everyone to visit the small community of Brierfield, Al (Bibb County) !

  9. Me and Melissa have a little bit of land on the Little Cahaba that has the pumping station(remaining foundation) located on it.

  10. We purchased the land there on beautiful Mahan Creek. There are pillars at the end of the property where there was a bridge over the creek in earlier times. Old Montevallo Selma Road I would love to have a photo of the bridge if anyone has one.

  11. It’s also a popular wedding venue. Really pretty setting.

    1. I have spent a lot of time there

  12. Many good memories of time spent there with friends and family

  13. My great grandmother, Sephronia Theodosia Chadbourne, was adopted by one of the Fancher families of Bibb County.

  14. My great grandmother, Sephronia Theodosia Chadbourne, was adopted by one of the Fancher families of Bibb County.

  15. Jack Bergstresser… have you seen this?

  16. My great grandfather was Thomas Jefferson Peter and I am most interested in any history of Brierfield. As a child, I remember going to Boothton,AL where my grandfather, George Frederick Peter owned coal mines. Boothton is no longer there but I know it was close to Brierfield.

  17. ive grown up in brierfield and most of my childhood life was spent in this park seeing as my grandmother has cleaned those houses and whatnot for over a quarter century. i used to live behind the foundation to the nail mill on rolling mill road and have just recently established what little knowledge i have of what ive come to learn was once a fascinating little town. so thank you to the ones that have spent the time,putting this and other historic readings together!

  18. I grew up on Mahan creek camping and fishing hate my kid can’t do the same just like the cahaba

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