“SHELBY IRON COMPANY.  An industrial corporation, incorporated, 1890, in New Jersey; capital stock authorized and outstanding, $1,000,000; shares $100; funded debt: $250,00, 6 percent gold notes, due September 1, 1918; property owned in Alabama iron ore mines, iron furnaces, and charcoal pits at Shelby; offices: Shelby, Ala., and New York, N.Y.

This company succeeded to the property and name of one of the first iron-making companies organized in the State.  Prior to 1850 Horace Ware built a small blast furnace in Shelby County and called it Shelby Iron Works.  From this beginning has grown the large industry operated lay the present organization.  The operations of the company were hindered for many years by the absence of transportation facilities, and by the scarcity of skilled labor.  The products of the furnace, consisting mainly of pig iron and hollow ware, were either sold to the merchants and farmers of the surrounding country or hauled to the Coosa River, about 8 miles distant, and floated down to Montgomery, Prattville, and Mobil.  In 1854 the manufacture of wrought-iron blooms were undertaken.  A small forge was erected on Camp Branch, three miles west of the furnace.  Some of the wrought product was shipped to Sheffield, England, in1856, and manufactured into high-grade steel.  By legislative act February 4, 1858, the original company was chartered as the Shelby County Iron Manufacturing Co.  ‘Horace Ware, of Shelby County, together with such persons as may hereafter associate with him,’ were named as the incorporators.  On March 18, 1862, Mr. Ware sold a six-sevenths inerest in the property to John W. Lapsley, James W. Lapsley, John R. Kenan, Andrew T. Jones, John M. McClanahan, and Henry H. Ware for $150, 000.  The company’s charter was amended, by act of November 20, 1862, changing its name to the Shelby Iron Co. and authorizing a capital stock of $2,000,000.  Another furnace was erected soon after the new owners took charge and the manufacture of first-quality iron continued until the plant was destroyed by Wilson’s raiders in the spring of 1865.  During the War, iron to make cannon and armor plate for rams and gunboats was furnished from the Shelby plant to the Confederate Government.  The armor of the ironclad ‘Tennessee’ is said to have been made from Shelby iron.  In 1867 or 1868 the plant was rebuilt.  Eastern capitalists were interested with the local stockholders in the rehabilitated enterprise, and it has since been in continuous operation.  In 1890 capitalists of New York acquired control of the company, and reorganized it under the laws of the State, retaining the old name.”

(Photos from the Encyclopedia of Alabama on-line at www.encyclopediaofalabama.org)

Reference Data:

History of Alabama and Directory of Alabama Biography, Vol. 2, by Thomas McAdoryy Owen and Marie Bankhead Owen, 1921, page 1246