Wallace S. McElwain (1832-1888) trained in a gun factory in New York and in a foundry in Ohio before moving to Holly Springs, Mississippi, where he operated Jones, McElwain and Company Iron Foundry. He became well known in the Southeast for his cast iron designs, which still adorn many buildings in New Orleans's French Quarter. After the Civil War began, he received the Confederacy's first order for the production of rifles and cannons. As Union forces approached Holly Springs, he moved his operations to Jefferson County. Built in 1863 by McElwain under contract to the Confederate government, the Irondale Furnace supplied pig iron to the arsenal in Selma. The facility encompassed 2,146 acres and included an ore mine, quarry, tramway, foundry, blacksmiths' shops, stables, and employee housing. The Fourth Iowa Veteran Volunteers destroyed it on March 29, 1865, but it was rebuilt in 1866 and operated until 1873 as the first iron furnace in Alabama to return to operation after the Civil War. McElwain died in Chattanooga, Tennessee.