Aldrich, Alabama

Unincorporated community in Alabama, United States

33°06′27″N 86°53′28″W / 33.10750°N 86.89111°W / 33.10750; -86.89111CountryUnited StatesStateAlabamaCountyShelbyElevation

456 ft (139 m)Time zoneUTC-6 (Central (CST)) • Summer (DST)UTC-5 (CDT)Area codes205, 659GNIS feature ID112976^[1]

Aldrich is an unincorporated community in Shelby County, Alabama, United States, that is now part of Montevallo.^[1]^[2]

History

Coal was mined in the area around Aldrich beginning in 1839.^[3] In 1875, Truman H. Aldrich purchased the town surrounding the mines and named it Aldrich. He leased the mining operations to his younger brother, William F. Aldrich, who was married to Josephine Cables Aldrich, spiritualist, Theosophist, editor, and publisher. Convict labor was employed at some time during the operation of Aldrich's coal mines, and is mentioned in Douglas Blackmon's Slavery By Another Name.^[4] A prison was built to house the convicts, and the convict cemetery is located near where the prison once stood.^[3] The community was once home to churches, a school, and houses that were all built by the operators of the mines.^[5] A post office was established in 1883, with William Aldrich as the first postmaster, and was in use until it was closed in 1965.^[6] From 1895 to 1902, Aldrich had a locally published newspaper, The Alabama time-piece.^[7] The mines were closed on July 5, 1942.^[3] Today, Aldrich is home to the Aldrich Coal Mine Museum.^[8]

Demographics

Aldrich never reported a population figure separately on the U.S. Census as an unincorporated community on the U.S. Census according to the census returns from 1850^[9]-2010.^[10] It has since been annexed into Montevallo.

Gallery

Farrington Hall
Aldrich Commissary
Artifact collection located in commissary
Superintendent's House (colorized from original photograph)

References

^ ^a ^b "Aldrich". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior.
^ Shelby County Highway Functional Classification System (PDF) (Map). Alabama Department of Transportation. 2004. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 21, 2014.
^ ^a ^b ^c "Society: Work, Coal, Henry Emfinger". Northbysouth.kenyon.edu. Retrieved June 2, 2014.
^ Douglas A. Blackmon (January 6, 2009). Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. pp. 88–. ISBN 978-0-307-47247-2.
^ "Mining". Rootsweb.ancestry.com. Retrieved June 2, 2014.
^ "Shelby County". Jim Forte Postal History. Retrieved October 21, 2014.
^ "About The Alabama time-piece. (Aldrich, Ala.) 1895-19?? « Chronicling America « Library of Congress". Chroniclingamerica.loc.gov. Retrieved June 2, 2014.
^ "Aldrich Coal Mine Museum, Inc. 1928 Company Store - Montevallo". Alabama.travel. Retrieved June 2, 2014.
^ http://www2.census.gov/prod2/decennial/documents/1850c-11.pdf, 1850 Census (places)
^ http://www.census.gov/prod/cen2010/cph-1-2.pdf, 2010 AL Census