Lipscomb, AL

Lipscomb is a Jefferson County city between Birmingham and Bessemer, with a history that runs through coal, furnaces, and a rail line. The area was first settled in the 1830s and later became known as Wheeling, where Stimson Harvey Woodward's mining and blast-furnace operations helped spur a railroad connection. Three Lipscomb brothers arrived in 1885; Lawrence opened a general store, and the place became Lipscomb Station after the rail line tied it to Birmingham and Bessemer. Lipscomb incorporated in 1910 and now sits inside the Birmingham metro's western working landscape. Its name preserves the family that helped turn a mining-and-rail stop into a city.