The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-07-22
TELLS IF STATES
 FIRST IRON MAKER
Ninion TannehiII Lived North
 of Tuscaloosa
WAS MAKING IRON IN 1848
Texas Relative Writes to Aee-Herald Giving History of Family and of First Attempts to Manu-
 facture Iron.
To the Editor of The Age-Herald:

To the Editor of The Age-Herald:
 received a few days since some clip pings from your paper, sent me by a cousin living at Gadsden, in which was discussed the History of Iron Making in Alabama" and among the informa- tion was one sentence as follows: Its getting next to impossible to gather the facts about the first workers and the early plants in the state even now. How many living today know the history of Tannehill?"
 l will endeavor to give you brief his- tory of "Tannehfll." who was the first iron-maler of Alabama.
 The Tannehill family originated in Scot land something more than TOO years since; the family started from a founding boy, who was discovered early one morning on the side of a hill by an old man and his wife, who were out hunting up their calves, and as the little boy was only ? years old and could not give any account of himself, the old couple adopted him and gave him the name of "Tannochill," after the name of the hill upon which he was found, and the name has since been changed to that of "Tannehill." This is matter of public records of Scotland
 During the early settlement of the state of Pennsylvania there came over from Scotland a family of seven brothers oy the name of Tannehill, who settled in that state, and one of those seven brothers, whose name was Phillip, came down Into North Carolina and raised a large fam fly, one of his sons by the name of James coming to South Carolina, and also raised a large family, among whom were five sons. Heir names were as follows: James, Ninion. Ben, Calton and William, and when these five brothers became of age they all came to the state of Alabama, settling in different parts of the state.
 Now, the brother by the name of Ninlon Is the one who settled some distance above Tuscaloosa and was the owner of some twenty negro slaves and engaged first in farming and stock raising, but later began the making of iron. In Au- gust, 1s4S, my father and mother were married, and early in January, 1S49. father and mother went from Eutaw (where they lived) up above Tuscaloosa to see my fathers uncle, Ninion, and spent week or more with him, and he had his iron factory in full blast at that time and for some time before, at least as early as 1S4s and perhaps some time earlier.
 My old great uncle, Ninion, had three children, two boys and one girl; one boy was named Milton. do not remember the others name. The girl was named La venia and married man by the name of McMath. whose father owned the noted "McMath Springs" on the Tuscaloosa road. Although I have been In Texas for more than flfty-six years, have been back three different times to the old state of Alabama and spent several months at a time, yet I never met any of my father s relatives, and do not know where any of Uncle Nings" children or grandchildren live. It seems to have been characteristic of the family to be pioneers from the time they started from Scotland. The decend- ants of the seven brothers who settled in Pennsylvania are now scattered over every state In the union.
 Trusting that this communication may enable those who are interested in get ting at the facts in the early history of the iron industry of your state, l will close by stating that I was born at Green county, Alabama. Yours respect Green county, Rlabama. Yours respect fully WILLIAM w. TANNEHILL.
 Comanche, Tex, July 20. 1907.