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Next time you’re traveling the Texas highways between Tyler and
Lufkin you can see a bit of Texas foundry
history just south of Rusk. On a Texas
Historical marker 2 miles south of Rush on State
Highway 69 there a marker for the Tassie Bell
foundry (named after the owners wife). Shortly
after the Civil War, the New Birmingham Iron
Company set out to build a “new Birmingham” in
East Texas. |
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The New Birmingham community was a dazzling upstart city, known as
the “Iron Queen of the Southwest”. The master
mind of the town and melting operation was
Alexander Blevins, an Alabama sewing machine
salesman. The Tassie Belle operation was capable
of smelting 50 tons per day of pig iron, which
made it one of the larger smelters west of
Birmingham. The town of New Birmingham grew
quickly and had as its center piece a 99 room
Southern Style Hotel, with hot and cold running
water and electricity. Guest of the hotel
included Jay Gould, President Grover Cleveland,
and Governor Jim Hogg. |
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Also in the 15 block downtown district were lighted streets and 32
mercantile operations. The economic panic of
1893 eventually led to the demise of the foundry
and the town of new Birmingham, although old
timers will tell you it was the curse of the
red-headed woman. Today a short walk up the hill
behind the marker, you will find the remains of
the Tassie Belle furnace as well as the base
wall outline of the original foundry. It’s
definitely worth a quick stop for those in the
Texas foundry business. |
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