Bottles and Extras
he had joined the Virginia militia, rising to captain by 1856. In 1858, he moved to Owensville, Roberts County, Texas to practice law. When the Civil War broke out he enlisted as a private in the famed Hood’s Texas Brigade, rising to the rank of brigadier general by the end of the conflict.
Figure 9: General William Harrison Hamman
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Nov - Dec 2015
After the war, Hamman tried his hand at prospecting for oil, building railroads and developing transportation infrastructure. In 1871, he married Ella Virginia Laudermilk, whose sister was the wife of the man who owned the iron works. By 1890, Hamman was a dominant figure in the New Birmingham Iron and Land Company, vigorously promoting the town, it industry, and its future.
How the general and young Stanley Cooney chanced to be acquainted has gone unrecorded. In July 1890, an event occurred recorded by one newspaper as “Frightful Tragedy in New Birmingham, Tex.” Despite being described as usually “notably quiet and gentlemanly in his demeanor,” Cooney was neither when he encountered Hamman. Blinded by anger, he used both barrels to gun the former Confederate general down in the street. The Tennessean’s motive was said to be that Hamman had defamed the character of his wife. Some whispered, however, that it was Ella Virginia who had traduced Mary.
Caught with the smoking gun still in his hand, young Stanley waived a preliminary hearing, was arrested and sent to jail. When word of this killing reached Nashville, John Cooney and another family member immediately left for Texas to help his boy. A Nashville paper opined: “The news of yesterday was a great shock to them and the universal opinion is that he must have been justifiable in what he did.” Those sentiments did not translate to Texas. Despite able legal assistance, young Cooney was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to prison. Meanwhile, Hamman was buried in the Owensville Cemetery in nearby Calvert, Texas (Fig. 10). After the general’s murder, New Birmingham suffered its own death blows in quick succession. The panic of 1893 brought the building of railroads to a halt, iron prices dropped precipitously, the town’s major ore plant exploded without funds to rebuild it, and state laws prevented anyone outside from buying land there. According to local legend, the fatal blow occurred in 1892 with the news that Cooney - likely with help from Mary’s politically potent Wheeler family - had been pardoned and released from jail. The news appears to have unhinged the Widow Hamman. “In a fit of outrage and grief,” as it is told, she ran through the streets screaming to the Heavens to “leave no stick or stone standing” in the town. As New Birmingham slowly died, many saw her diatribe as an omen or perhaps a curse. With no guests, the Southern Hotel was occupied for years only by a custodian. It burned to the ground in 1926. New Birmingham, the boom town had become a doomed town. It eventually became a ghost town and vegetation swallowed up the site. Today the location is remembered only by a State of Texas roadside marker (Fig. 11.) After his pardon, Stanley spared no time in getting back to Tennessee. The 1910 census found him and Mary back Nashville with the rest of the Cooneys. He was working at the family grocery just as if nothing had happened. Mary was launched on her career as an Impressionist landscape artist. Even today, her paintings are sold by Southern art galleries for hundreds of dollars. I believe there is a tale to be told behind every pre-Prohibition bottle or jug. Seldom, however, does the narrative turn out to be as dramatic as the one related here. When the name on the jug is “Cooney,” clearly the back story can be well worth pursuing.
Fig 10: General William Harrison Hamman grave marker