Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company
The Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company (1852–1952), also known as TCI and the Tennessee Company, was a major American steel manufacturer with interests in coal and iron ore mining and railroad operations. Originally based entirely within Tennessee, it relocated most of its business to Alabama in the late nineteenth century, following protests over its use of free convict labor. With a sizable real estate portfolio, the company owned several Birmingham satellite towns, including Ensley, Fairfield, Docena, Edgewater and Bayview. It also established a coal mining camp it sold to U.S. Steel which developed it into the Westfield, Alabama planned community.
Furnace of the Tennessee Coal, Iron, and Railroad Company, Ensley, Alabama, 1906.
View of Ensley worker housing and steel works in February 1937. Arthur Rothstein for the U. S. Farm Security Administration
1899 Certificate for 100 Shares in TCI issued to FW Gilley Jr. & Co.
Ensley iron furnaces, 1908
Fairfield is a city in western Jefferson County, Alabama, United States. It is part of the Birmingham metropolitan area and is located southeast of Pleasant Grove. The population was 10,000 at the 2020 census.
Main entrance to the U.S. Steel Fairfield Works