During the final years of the Civil War, Montgomery merchants Hannon, Offutt and Company built a rolling mill along Buck Creek called the Central Iron Works. Its construction was superintended by Thomas S. Alvis, a Virginia ironmaster who had recently completed a rolling mill for the Confederate government at Selma. The works had just begun operation when Union cavalry under General James H. Wilson destroyed it on March 30, 1865. After being abandoned for 7 years, R.W. Cobb, B. B. Lewis, and Richard Fell bought the property at a tax sale, organized the Central Iron Works Company, and began operation in 1873, primarily making Cobb's patented Alabama Loop Cotton Tie. Cobb later served as Alabama Governor from 1878 to 1882 and Lewis as University of Alabama President from 1880 to 1885. Nails became the chief product in 1882 until the company's failure. Reorganized and enlarged as the Shelby Rolling Mill Company in 1889, the works produced bar iron and light T-rails, but that company also failed within 2 years. The Alabama Tube and Iron Company purchased the property in 1901 and produced wrought iron pipe. By 1910, the Conners-Weyman Steel Company operated the works, making cotton ties, hoops, and light bands. The Conners Steel Company acquired the plant in 1920 and dismantled the mill in 1923.