Ensley Land Co. - Enoch Ensley - 1880's to 1900's dated Alabama Land Stock Certificate - Jefferson County Alabama
Inv# GS1109 Stock
General Stock printed by American Bank Note Co., New York. Three exciting vignettes - one of a mining town and two others of miners at work in mines. A rare state. Rare!!!
Ensley is a prominent neighborhood in Jefferson County, Alabama, that was once an independent and prosperous industrial city. It was officially incorporated on February 12, 1899, but was annexed into Birmingham on January 1, 1910, under the "Greater Birmingham" legislation. Founded in 1886 by Memphis entrepreneur Enoch Ensley, it was located near the Pratt coal seam and adjacent to the rapidly developing Birmingham. Ensley invested heavily in the project and attracted the Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company (TCI), which acquired a controlling stake in the Ensley Land Company.
The city's initial development saw the expertise of sanitary engineer Edwin Waring, Jr. from Rhode Island, who designed its streets and infrastructure with an early implementation of separate storm and sanitary sewers. Ensley and TCI established four 200-ton blast furnaces, which were the largest of their kind in the world at the time and began operation in April 1889. However, the city's promising start was marred by setbacks, including Ensley's death in 1891 and the economic panic of 1893, which led to the dissolution of the land company and the sale of the property at a sheriff's auction for less than $16,000.
A stock certificate is issued by businesses, usually companies. A stock is part of the permanent finance of a business. Normally, they are never repaid, and the investor can recover his/her money only by selling to another investor. Most stocks, or also called shares, earn dividends, at the business's discretion, depending on how well it has traded. A stockholder or shareholder is a part-owner of the business that issued the stock certificates.
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