[1] Discovering that some small-scale iron processing was already occurring at Rusk Penitentiary,[2] he approached his brother-in-law, W. H. Hamman, who enthusiastically supported the venture.

[3] Together, they brought in a number of local investors, formed a company to develop the idea and began taking options on ore-laden acreage.

(The company would undergo another reorganization and name-change in 1890, becoming the New Birmingham Iron and Development Co.) Meanwhile, a pipe works and brick kiln were constructed and a coal-fired electric generating plant promised the utmost in modern convenience for new residents.

Banks, a railway depot, a schoolhouse, a weekly newspaper, an ice plant and electricity from a coal-fired plant—all these created an impression not only of great potential, but of an established community.

Its first register, beginning March 28, 1889, and closing Feb. 9, 1890, recorded guests from twenty-eight states, including Jay Gould of railroad fame and Grover Cleveland, recently come from the presidential chair, Robert A.

Van Wyck, financiers, who had risked their millions in the attempted development of Cherokee County's iron ore were frequently registered.

Recently put into effect, ostensibly, to protect ranchers in West Texas from land speculation by wealthy foreign investors, the statute had been promoted by Governor James Hogg.

The management of NBI&D lobbied the governor to support an amendment to the law, but if he ever considered a move to assist the people of his home county, there was little evidence of it.

[citation needed] In spite of being wined, dined and otherwise feted throughout New Birmingham and the Southern Hotel, Hogg stood firmly against any moderation of the Alien Land Law.

Lack of demand for pig iron led to a shutdown of the plants and without the jobs that had brought them there, people began to drift out of New Birmingham.

In a fit of outrage and grief, Mrs. Hamman (with some irony the sister of Tassie Belle Blevins)[13] took to the streets beseeching the Almighty to destroy the city and have it swallowed by the forest from whence it had come.

[citation needed] The greater damage to the future of New Birmingham was the death of W. H. Hamman, whose money, influence and business acumen had been instrumental from the beginning.