In 1889, Dr. Alfred Davis Bellamy moved his Atlanta-based wagon manufacturing company to East Florence near the northern bank of the Tennessee River, where proximity to the L & N Railroad, the Florence Canal, river commerce, plentiful woodlands, and iron reserves made an ideal base for the growing Florence Wagon Works. By 1904, the company had become a fixture of the community, and at its peak it employed between one hundred and seventy-five and two hundred fifty staff. Its success centered on the popular Light Running Florence Wagon, which was used widely across America and also sold internationally. By the early 1900s, demand was so strong that the works regularly produced twenty-five wagons a day, and its annual average of fifteen thousand wagons made it one of North America’s largest wagon manufacturers, second only to the Canadian Studebaker Wagon Works. During World War I, the Florence Wagon was used on the battlefields of France.

Photo: Sandra Hughes Tidwell

Muscle Shoals, Alabama · USA