1912

1912 was the 41st year after the founding of the city of Birmingham.

Events

• January 14: A fire broke out on 2nd Avenue North, damaging the Molton Building and causing flooding in the adjacent Bell Building, resulting in a city-wide telephone outage for nearly two weeks.
• February 3: William H. Sims gave his address, "Why Not Woman's Suffrage in Alabama?" to the Quid pro Quo Club.
• Spring: The 1912 West End tornado pulled up fences at Rickwood Field.
• April 20: The light cruiser USS Birmingham (CL-2) reverted to the Atlantic Reserve Fleet at Philadelphia
• August 13: The 1912 Abernant Mine explosion killed 18 miners.
• October 2: The Ringling Bros. Circus performed in Birmingham
• October 9-18: 1912 Alabama State Fair
• October 11: Buffalo Bill's Wild West and Pawnee Bill's Far East performed in Tuscaloosa.
• Birmingham Lodge No. 757 was chartered by the Grand Lodge of Alabama.
• The Brookside Social Club was founded.
• The Birmingham City Federation of Colored Women's Clubs was organized.

Business

• E. B. Van Keuren founded an architecture firm.
• Under the direction of company president George Crawford, the practice of convict leasing was abandoned at TCI's mines.
• May 8: ACIPCO employees were given access to a new bathhouse with hot and cold running water.
• September 5: The Birmingham, Ensley & Bessemer Railroad began passenger service to western Jefferson County.
• September 22: Publisher Victor Hanson launched a Sunday edition of The Birmingham News.
• The Birmingham Realty Company developed the Norwood residential subdivision.
• The Standard Furnishing Company was founded.
• TCI's Ensley Works produced 840,000 tons of steel.
• The Southern Iron & Steel Company failed and its assets were sold to the Gulf States Steel Company.
• The Red Mountain Mining & Manufacturing Company was dissolved.
• Henry Milner organized the Milner Land Company.
• The Great Southern Automobile Company opened sales rooms in the Empire Building.
• The Young & Vann Supply Company moved into the Anheuser-Busch Distribution Warehouse on 1st Avenue North.
• The Jemison Real Estate & Insurance Company remodeled the ground floor of the Fox Building as a public market hall.
• Ray McMillan purchased the Shelby Springs resort.
• American Printing Co. opened.
• The Birmingham, Tidewater & Coast Railroad was organized.
• The Harris Transfer Company began operating motorized moving vans.
• White Dairy was founded.

Education

• George Denny succeeded John Abercrombie as President of the University of Alabama.
• James Shelborne succeeded Andrew Montague as President of Howard College.
• William A. Bell succeeded [James Bray]] as President of Miles College.
• Roy Dimmitt succeeded R. E. Tidwell as principal of Ensley High School.
• September 12: The trustees of the Birmingham Medical College transferred its building and land to the University of Alabama.
• J. E. Jeffrey succeeded J. A. Morgan as principal of the Moore School in Ensley.
• The South Pratt Community School was founded.

Government

• The town of North Johns was incorporated.
• The Blount County town of Cleveland was incorporated.
• Hugo Black resigned from the Birmingham Police Court.
• John Abercrombie was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.
• John Hearst Miller was elected to the Birmingham Municipal Court.
• H. T. Caffey succeeded M. J. Sharp as Mayor of Leeds.
• The United States Circuit Court for the Northern District of Alabama was changed to the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama.
• David McLendon was elected Jefferson County Tax Assessor.

Religion

• Willis Clark succeeded Raimundo deOvies as pastor of St Andrew's Episcopal Church.
• John Plunker resigned from the pulpit of South Highland Presbyterian Church.
• James R. Edwards succeeded Willis W. Lee as pastor of Ruhama Baptist Church.
• Louis Pizitz succeeded Isadore Shapiro as president of the Young Men's Hebrew Association.
• George Eaves stepped down from the pulpit at Pilgrim Congregational Hall.
• J. W. Johnson succeeded L. C. Branscomb as pastor of First Methodist Church.
• R. E. Tyler succeeded L. A. Holmes as pastor of East Lake Methodist Church.
• P. L. Abernathy succeeded Robert Anderson as pastor of Avondale Methodist Church.
• E. C. McVoy became pastor of Highlands Methodist Church.
• The Birmingham Baptist College was rechartered under the Colored Baptist Educational Association and moved to Powderly.
• Methodist-Episcopal pastor William Simmons was suspended for inefficiency.
• A portion of the congregation of Oak Grove Cumberland Presbyterian Church merged with Rosedale Cumberland Presbyterian Church to form Edgewood Presbyterian Church.
• Mountain Brook Methodist Church was founded in Crestline Village.
• Sylacauga Baptist Church changed its name to First Baptist Church of Sylacauga.

Sports

• April 11: Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher Eddie Dent made his last Major League appearance.
• May 29: Washington Senators pitcher Ewart "Dixie" Walker made his last Major League appearance.
• Carlton Molesworth's 1912 Birmingham Barons won the Southern Association pennant.
• Lonnie Noojin succeeded John Longwell as coach of the Howard Bulldogs football team.
• Mike Donahue established a men's soccer program at the Alabama Polytechnic Institute in Auburn.

Individuals

• November 5: B. O. Hargrove was promoted to Captain of Birmingham Fire Station No. 7.
• Mary Echols became Grand Matron of the Alabama Grand Chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star.
• John Gallalee joined the faculty of the University of Alabama.
• Carrie Hill trained at Arthur Freedlander's "plein air school" on Martha's Vineyard.
• G. M. Howle and J. T. Howle, publishers of Howle's Iconoclast, were charged with libel.
• Miller Reese Hutchison became chief engineer of Thomas Edison's laboratory
• Kelly Ingram re-enlisted in the U.S. Navy.
• James Mitchell became president of Alabama Power Company.
• Lewis Morris succeeded Rhett Goode as dean of the Birmingham Medical, Dental and Pharmaceutical College.
• A. H. Parker resigned from the Alabama Penny Savings Bank.
• William Rushton Sr was named president of the Atlantic Ice and Coal Corporation.
• Oscar Underwood declined nomination for Vice President of the United States.
• Clement Wood was appointed an assistant City Attorney for Birmingham.
• Eugene Yates became chief engineer of Alabama Power Company.

Births

• January 11: Hugh Stubbins Jr, architect
• January 12: Howard Bailey, football player
• January 13: George Gaunt, architect
• January 15: Leon Medlock, Birmingham Police Department
• February 12: Paul Bascomb, jazz saxophonist
• February 25: Millard Hayes, pitcher
• March 3: Samuel Barker, first dean of UAB Graduate School
• April 4: George Brownell Jr, president of Brownell Travel
• April 16: Billy Edmundson, president of Southern Toy Co.
• April 20: Helen Davis, architect
• May 8: William Chambers, architect
• May 10: Laurie Battle, U.S. House of Representatives
• June 1: Julius "Little Man" Popwell, poker player
• June 16: Dorothy Levy, United Ability co-founder
• June 30: Mamie Foster, educator
• August 7: Tom Drake, baseball player
• November 7: Joe Gunther, professional wrestler and wrestling promoter
• December 23: John Monro, professor at Harvard University and Miles College
• James Bailey, Mayor of Leeds
• Francis Falkenburg, Alabama State Representative and manager of the Alabama Theatre
• Edward Friend Jr, attorney
• Dona Hardekopf, actress and charity director
• Herman Long, social scientist, Talladega College and UNCF president
• Herbert Longenecker, biochemist and Tulane University president
• W. C. Patton, NAACP executive
• Hugh Thomas, choral director at Birmingham-Southern College
• Joseph Woodward II, Woodward Iron Company executive and historian

Graduations

• Henry Badham Jr earned a degree from Yale University.
• John Persons graduated from the University of Alabama School of Law.

Marriages

• August 7: Jack Bethea married Alice Sixbey.
• December 12: Architect William Warren married the former Dorthea Orr.
• Mel Drennen married Eloise August Johnson in New York City.
• Aspiring architect Carolyn Cortner married Wilburn Blanks Smith.

Deaths

• January 14: J. F. B. Jackson, business investor
• March 5: George Scoville, hotelier
• August 13: 18 miners were killed in the 1912 Abernant Mine explosion.
• September 4: William Mailly, labor leader
• October 8: Nelson Barker, banker

Works

• January 6: The Survey published a special issue, "[Birmingham: Smelting Iron Ore and Civics]".
• Joseph Zoettl began constructing miniatures at St Bernard Abbey, eventually creating the Ave Maria Grotto.
• The Abolition Crusade and Its Consequences, by Hilary Herbert
• Birmingham's Revolutionary War Veterans Memorial was commissioned by the General Sumter Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

Buildings

Woodlawn Methodist Church was completed in 1912

• American Trust and Savings Bank Building at 2001 1st Avenue North
• Bluff Park United Methodist Church's frame building on Valley Street
• Burnett Building at 1816–1818 2nd Avenue North
• Edgewood Park and Edgewood Highlands subdivision
• Ensley Christian Church was completed.
• Forbes Building for Forbes Piano Company on 4th Avenue North
• Graves Building on 2nd Avenue North
• T. S. Jackson residence
• Kaulton mill town near Tuscaloosa.
• Matsuyama, the Louis Clark country estate in Chalkville
• Pell City High School
• Rehobeth Baptist Church of Lawley
• The Richmond apartments on Highland Avenue
• Stewart Hall at Miles College
• Addition to the Summit School / Summit Baptist Church in Bluff Park
• Tuscaloosa Southern Railroad Depot
• Windham Building in Smithfield
• Whatley Memorial Baptist Church was dedicated.
• T. Felton Wimberly residence
• Woodlawn Methodist Church opened.
• YWCA Birmingham
• Tuscaloosa's Greensboro Avenue was paved.
• October 27: The cornerstone for the Convent of Perpetual Adoration and Blessed Sacrament Academy in West End was laid.

Demolitions

• The west half of the McAdory Building was taken down to make room for the American Trust and Savings Bank Building.

Context

The year 1912 saw the formal establishment of the Republic of China. New Mexico became the 47th state; Arizona became the 48th. Captain Robert Falcon Scott and a team of four became the second expeditionary group to reach the South Pole. The Girl Scouts were founded by Juliette Gordon Low. The Mayor of Tokyo gave 3,000 cherry trees to be planted in Washington, D.C. The RMS Titanic sank, killing 1,517 passengers and crew. The Olympic Games took place in Stockholm, Sweden. The Novarupta volcano formed on the Alaska Peninsula. Emperor Meiji of Japan died and was succeeded by his son Yoshihito, who became Emperor Taishō. Woodrow Wilson defeated incumbent William Howard Taft and former president Theodore Roosevelt in the presidential election. The skull of paleoanthropological hoax Piltdown Man was presented to the Geological Society of London.

Notable fiction published in 1912 included The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle, Riders of the Purple Sage by Zane Grey, The Judgement by Franz Kafka, Death in Venice by Thomas Mann; Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs, and The Tale of Mr. Tod by Beatrix Potter.

Notable music released in 1912 included the premiere performance of Gustav Mahler's "Symphony No. 9" and the publication of W. C. Handy's "The Memphis Blues". Senator Elihu Root was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for advocating the U.S. entry into World War I in opposition to the German Empire.

Notable births in 1912 included actors Dale Evans, José Ferrer, Gene Kelly, Eleanor Powell, and Cornel Wilde; artist Jackson Pollock; cartoonists Charles Addams and Chuck Jones; Korean president Kim Il-sung; figure skater Sonja Henie; first ladies Lady Bird Johnson and Pat Nixon; golfer Sam Snead; humorist Minnie Pearl; mathematician Alan Turing; musicians John Cage, Perry Como, Woody Guthrie, Lightnin' Hopkins, Georg Solti, and Sonny Boy Williamson II; photographer Gordon Parks; Pope John Paul I; scientist Wernher von Braun; television host Art Linkletter; and writer Studs Terkel.

Deaths included those of activist William Booth; architects Frank Furness and Richard Norman Shaw; artist Lawrence Alma-Tadema; author Bram Stoker; aviator Wilbur Wright; French politician Henri Brisson; Japanese Emperor Meiji; nurse Clara Barton; surgeon Joseph Lister;

1910s

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