 However, it went bankrupt during the mid-1890s, and the tracks were dismantled and sold for scrap.Electric lights came to Ashville in 1891, and the first telephone company was chartered in the same year.Residents in the southern half of the county often complained of the difficulty of traveling to Ashville over Backbone Mountain, which divides the county, so the state legislature authorized a satellite county seat to be established in Pell City in 1907 on the southern side of the mountain.