This new timeline updates my last BS&R timeline that is floating around the Internet and on Facebook. This new timeline is greatly expanded and contains more information. I did copyright this one. Why? It gives me a little control. The last BS&R timeline I did occasionally pops up and all the sources have been stripped away. One of the things I'm doing is not only trying to document and preserve the history of BS&R/ASW for future collectors/historians, but to also preserve these gentlemen's legacy. I would like to think that if someday one of their great-great grandchildren googled their name that this timeline might be one of the things that pop up. So, this copyright is not intended to limit or discourage distribution, but to protect that legacy.
So, if you want to download this and post it somewhere else, I'm fine with that, as long as the whole thing stays intact, including the list of sources at the bottom. Without those sources, including those who researched it and compiled it, this timeline becomes just another undocumented story. What gives this timeline validity is this is a record of the accounts from the men who were there.
Many of you already know this; This story begins in 2005 when I, a new collector of cast iron cookware, purchased from Flea-Market Dale a #14 skillet. I believe I paid $22 and a Japanese Chef skillet for it. I ran home with this new treasure and posted a picture of it on the Wagner and Griswold Society’s Forum, asking that eternal question, “Who made this?” My friend, Roger Barfield, answered that he thought it was a Century made by Birmingham Stove and Range, but no one knew for sure. He wrote that he was hopeful that one would someday show up with a label and we would then know for sure. This is what started my search, that one skillet. I searched that night for a few hours and finally found a lead with a group called S.C.O.R.E. in Birmingham, Alabama. This was a group of retired business men that counseled new small business owners to help them make it. One of them listed was Saunders Jones II, President of Birmingham Stove & Range Company. Better yet it listed an email address for him. I wrote an email, including my phone number. The next day at work around 5:30PM my wife called to tell me that a Mr. Jones had called for me and would call me back at 7:30 when I was off. I rushed home after my shift and at 7:30 he called and we talked until 10:30 that night.
This started a 10-year telephone relationship where we would talk Birmingham Stove & Range (BS&R), Atlanta Stove Works (ASW), foundries in general, weather, politics, golf, kids, etc. A very wise and kind man. This connection led to me talking with Mr. Clee Moreman and Mr. Blankenship, both wonderful gentlemen, who shared with me their experiences of working at BS&R.
This timeline is basically Saunders Jones II story, with assists from; Mr. Blankenship, Mr. Moreman, Hugh Rushing, Saunders Jones Jr., Joe Robinson of Robinson Foundry, Tom Penkava, Cheryl Watson and others. To all these I say thank you.
Dwayne Henson
CLICK HERE for Updated Timeline dated February 11, 2017 (http://www.griswoldandwagner.com/forum/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=5639.0;attach=5597)