Greater Bessemer
Greater Bessemer was a movement, patterned after the Greater Birmingham legislation, to merge the cities of Bessemer, Brighton and Jonesboro before the 1910 census. The Bessemer Board of Trade and its president H. W. Crook initiated the campaign and a committee presided over by John Martin pursued lobbying for its inclusion in the special session of the Alabama legislature expected to be called by Governor B. B. Comer to take up Birmingham's annexation proposal. The resolution adopted by the committee also addressed a "popular movement to secure the establishment of a new county" of which Bessemer would be the seat. They committee pledged that if Birmingham interests remunerated the cost of the special session, that Bessemer would pay its share to be included.
References
- Gilbert, Walter S. (February 13, 1909) "Bessemer Wants an Extra Session." The Birmingham News