By Dixie Norwood
MSNHA graduate assistant
Did you know that there was a cast iron foundry in the Shoals?
In 1905, brothers W.H. and Charles Martin were salesmen for King Hardware Company, out of Atlanta. After traveling through northwest Alabama, the brothers decided it was perfect for company expansion. They persuaded the owners of King Hardware to buy a site in Sheffield. This soon became The King Stove & Range Company, dedicated to custom-made coal & wood heaters, cooking stoves and ranges.
It took 12 years for the brothers to buy out the company’s owners, but 1n 1917 they became sole owners of King Hardware Company. A year later, they decided to buy another foundry — this one right across the Tennessee River in Florence. The new business became Martin Stove and Range Company, specializing in cast-iron skillets and “sad” irons (for those of you, like myself who did not know what these were, they are clothes pressing irons!)
The business expanded again. In 1939, the brothers established the Martin Stamping and Stove Company, in Huntsville. This third company produced gas heaters. During the war years (1939-1945), the foundries in Sheffield and Florence manufactured magazine heaters for the U.S. army. The stamping facility made bomb crates and other items for the war effort.
A new facility was built in 1966 in Athens to produce electric heaters. The brothers even expanded outside the state to Americus, Georgia, in the
1970s.
During this time, the Sheffield plant was closed and the foundry in Florence was changed over to automatic productions. As the years passed, the business began to suffer. Production and sales fell drastically.
Not many people realize that there was a cast iron plant (actually two) in the Shoals area. Pretty neat to find out that something I have actually cooked with came from northwest Alabama.
**This post is dedicated to my Grandma. She has the cast-iron skillet mentioned earlier. It is marked with the Florence, Alabama, stamp. It’s great to see one of these in person. **
For more information, visit https://www.southerncastiron.com/forgotten-foundry-martin-stove-range-co and https://www.encyclopedia.com/books/politics-and-business-magazines/martin-industries-inc
Photos from https://www.southerncastiron.com/
