Founded in southern Bibb County near a spur of the Mobile and
Ohio Railroad completed in 1898, the city of Brent was conceived
by engineer Brent Armstrong, who had overseen construction of a
railroad bridge over the Cahaba River. He collaborated with
landowners Jesse Dean and Rhoda Cooper to develop the city site.
A survey for the site took place in April 1898, and streets
named by the Cooper family after family members were laid out.
Armstrong bought the first lot for $25 and became the first
postmaster; he however did not live to see the city prosper,
dying in August 1899. Various homes and businesses followed,
including a saw mill. By 1903, the city had grown enough to
warrant its own railroad station, and the city incorporated in
January 1913, a year after the first bank in the city was
established. On May 27, 1973, a devastating tornado ripped
through Brent, destroying 90 percent of the buildings in the
city and killing five people. The tornado extended 35 miles on
the ground, the sixth-longest tornado t