Minor historical mystery surrounds metal stairs at Wilcox County Courthouse in Camden, Ala.

Foundry stamp on top riser of courthouse stairs.

My young son and I were out riding around downtown Camden the other day, and he asked to stop at the Old Wilcox County Courthouse for a closer look. The building was closed on that particular day, so we just walked around outside the building. As you’d expect from any nine-year-old boy, my son bounded up the wrought-iron stairs at the front of the building for a peek inside the second-floor windows.

“Hey, come look,” he called from the top of the stairs. I followed him up and there on the second flight, he pointed out something stamped on the face of the top riser. I bent over for a closer look and was surprised to read the words, “G. PEACOCK’S FOUNDRY – SELMA, ALA.”

My son was struck with the novelty that it said “Peacock,” our last name, and I explained to him that this was the stamp of the foundry that manufactured the stairs. On the way home, while he fiddled with his iPhone, I began to think more about “G. Peacock,” his Selma foundry and whether or not we were related. First chance I got, I did some research, and here’s what I learned.

I first turned to a book called “The Children of Levi Peacock” by John J. Pierce, which said that this “G. Peacock” was actually George Peacock, a foundryman who was born in England and came to the United States in 1848. Peacock first settled in New York, but eventually moved to Natchez, Miss. In 1863, during the Civil War, he moved to Selma to run a steel mill for the Confederacy. (Incidentally, according to Pierce’s book, this George Peacock is not related to my line of Peacocks.)

From there, I examined a book called “The Story of Selma” by Walter Mahan Jackson. According to that book, Peacock was born on May 5, 1823 near Stockton-on-Tees in Durham County, England. Trained as an iron worker, Peacock’s “services were very much in demand in the young iron industry of this country,” Jackson wrote. “He had served as superintendent of various iron works at various places when the war came on.”

Jackson went on to say that it was the Confederate foundry, sometimes called the Confederate naval cannon factory, that brought Peacock to Selma in 1863. “He came to Selma as superintendent of the foundry, a position created by a special act of the Confederate congress,” Jackson wrote. “He invented a system of core making for shells that trebled their production.”

Jackson also noted that Peacock established his own foundry in Selma in June 1865, about two months after the Civil War ended. I thought this bit of information was interesting because most sources say that the Wilcox County Courthouse was built in 1857 by Alexander J. Bragg. To me, this creates somewhat of an historical mystery as it indicates that the wrought iron stairs were not part of the building’s original construction since they were manufactured by a foundry that didn’t even exist until eight years after the courthouse was built.

Did the façade of the original building not include exterior stairs to the second floor? Were they added much later? Were the original stairs made of wood and then replaced by iron stairs after 1865? Did something happen to the original stairs that prompted their replacement?

Regardless of the answers to those questions, there is no doubt that the Old Wilcox County Courthouse is one of the most beautiful antebellum structures in the entire state. In the end, I’d like to hear from any readers who might know more about the building’s early construction or more details about the wrought iron stairs. Perhaps there is a simple answer to this minor mystery surrounding the courthouse stairs.