1855

1855 was 16 years before the founding of the City of Birmingham and the 36th year of Alabama statehood.

Events

• Railroads began serving the area of Buxahatchie.

Business

• Plantation owner Ninian Tannehill brought furnace master Moses Stroup in as a partner on his bloomery forge in Roupes Valley.

Individuals

• Attorney Rufus Cobb was admitted to the bar.
• John T. McCormick, then William P. Reeves became Shelby County Sheriff.

Births

• January 17: Al Hochstadter, bottler
• May 18: Charles Ferguson
• August 21: Emil Lesser, hotelier, developer and newspaper publisher
• August 25: Russell Cunningham
• September 22: James Hall, Presbyterian minister and educator
• October 17: Maurice Throckmorton, Postmaster of Birmingham
• October 30: Oscar Hundley, federal judge
• November 7: William Jelks
• December 16: Simon Klotz, retailer, insurance executive and civic leader
• Joseph Turner

Marriages

• February 13: William Hickman married Elvira Sims Hamilton, widow of Alexander Oden.

Works

Buildings

• John Drish residence tower addition

Context

In 1855, the Taiping Rebellion continued. Sir Henry Bessemer patented the "Bessemer process" for the mass-production of steel from molten pig iron. Alexander II became Emperor of Russia. The Mount Sinai Hospital opened. The Daily Telegraph began publication. David Livingstone became the first European to see Victoria Falls.

Notable births in 1855 razor inventor King Camp Gillett, firearm designer John Browning, adding machine inventor William Seward Burroughs I, astronomer Percival Lowell, baseball player Hardy Richardson, and meteorologist Léon Teisserenc de Bort. Notable deaths included scientist Carl Friedrich Gauss, Nicholas I of Russia, Bowery Boys gang member William Poole, author Charlotte Brontë, and naturalist William John Swainson.

1850s

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