The Story of Coal and Iron in Alabama

CHAPTER XIX

CHAPTER XIX A CHAPTER OF PROGRESS 1880-1886 Colonel DeBardeleben starts diversified industries in Birmingham. Establishment of rolling mills now owned by Republic Iron and Steel Company. First blast furnace of city of Birmingham now owned by Tennessee Company. Biographical sketch of Kentucky iron-master, T. T. Hillman. Formation of Alice Furnace Company. Colonel Sloss resigns from management of Oxmoor. "Mail., why don't you build you a furnace of your own?" says DeBardeleben. Organization of Sloss Furnace Company, parent stock of Sloss-Sheffield Company. Introduction of Harry Hargreaves. First Whitwell hot-blast stove in Alabama installed ill old Sloss furnaces. First million dollar deal of Alabama coal and iron trade. Colonel Enoch Ensley comes to town. " Give me something in the way of a coal mine that can knock the Tennessee Company into a cocked hat I" says he. DeBardeleben gives him Pratt. The Memphis clan takes hold. Sketch of Colonel Ensley's life. Pratt Coal and Iron Company organized. Introduction of Llewellyn Johns, Jones G. Moore, Fred M. Jackson, and John B. McClary. Record made in pig iron. Death of Major Peters. Formation of Cahaba Coal Mining Company. Further achievements of T. H. Aldrich. Building up a coal mining world. Association of Colonel Cornelius Cadle with Cahaba Companr. Opening up Blocton and Dudley. Export Coal Company and ExcelSIOr Coal Mine Company formed by Aldrich. First coal exported from State to West Indies in 1889-90. Founding of Williamson Iron Company. Sketch of C. P. Williamson. Woodward Iron Company's furnace goes into blast. Introduction of J. H. McCune. Competent and successful organization built up by Woodward brothers. Robert P. Porter's comments on Birmingham District in 1883. Entrance of William T. Underwood. Movements of Colonel DeBardeleben. Organization of Mary Pratt Furnace Company. Wider market created for Birmingham Iron. Birmingham Mineral Railroad begun. Development work inaugurated by Mr. Underwood. FOLLOWING the successful opening of the Pratt mines there were started in the Birmingham District, during the ensuing four years, eight new concerns: The Birmingham rolling mills, Alice Furnace Company, Sloss Furnace Company , Pratt Coal and Iron Company, Cahaba Coal Mining Company, Williamson Furnace Company, Woodward Iron Company , and Mary Pratt Furnace Company. Foremost among these were the Pratt Coal and Iron Company, the Cahaba Mining Company , and the Woodward Iron Company. The first group to be regarded in these chronicles comprises the rolling mills, the Alice and Sloss furnace companies, and 284 THE STORY OF COAL AND IRON IN ALABAMA the Pratt Coal and Iron Company, and introduces the names of Thomas Ward, W. B. Caldwell, T. T. Hillman, Harry Hargreaves , Enoch Ensley, Llewellyn Johns, Jones G. Moore, Fred M. Jackson, John B. McClary, and Arthur W. Smith. The second group includes accounts of the Cahaba Coal Mining Company, founded by T. H. Aldrich; the Woodward, Williamson, and Mary Pratt iron making companies, and further introduces the names of Cornelius Cadle, Lewis Minor, J. H. McCune, C. P. Williamson, and William T. Underwood. In the first group, it was DeBardeleben who was back of the launching of the rolling mills and the Alice furnace. Perceiving that he must have a consumer for his Pratt coal, he urged Messrs. Dupont and Caldwell and T. T. Hillman of Louisville, Kentucky, to run down to the now growing city of Birmingham, and take a look at the Pratt mines. He offered them special inducements to locate in Birmingham: for instance, Pratt coal, f. o. b. at $1.15 per ton for ten years; free carloads to start on for testing purposes on their home ground, and in addition to the low price on coal, concessions in the way of mill and furnace sites. Finding Pratt coal stood the test, DuPont and Caldwell took up DeBardeleben's offer, and began construction work in 1879 on the Birmingham rolling mills. In July of the following year the plant went into operation, with W. B. Caldwell, Jr., as president, and Thomas C. Ward as general manager. Also associated with the enterprise were Dr. Lawrence Smith and Thomas Coleman. The idea of the management was first to build a merchant mill for the manufacture of bar, sheet, plate, and guide mill irons, to be followed later, if practicable, by steel works. It was not until 1897 that this plant manufactured any open hearth steel. Plates were then rolled here to equip a United States gunboat during the Spanish War. The mills are owned at the present date by the Republic Iron and Steel Company. At the...