AS Williams III Alabama Coal and Iron records

A brief historical note is provided for five of the companies featured in this collection: the Eureka Company, the Empire Coal Company, the Pratt Consolidated Coal Company, the DeBardeleben Coal Corporation, and the Cullman Coal and Coke Company, all in Birmingham, Bessemer, Cullman County, Jefferson County, or Walker County, Alabama.

Industrialists Daniel Pratt and Henry Fairchild DeBardeleben acquired control of the Red Mountain Iron and Coal Company in 1872 and renamed it the Eureka Mining Company. Henry D. Clayton became president of the reorganized company, and DeBardeleben was named general manager. In 1873, the company's two Oxmoor furnaces were fired. However, unable to make the new company profitable, the inexperienced DeBardeleben resigned his post in 1873. In fall 1873, the company was reorganized as the Eureka Mining and Transportation Company of Alabama, managed by Levin S. Goodrich, who successfully increased iron production although the company remained unprofitable. The Oxmoor furnaces were converted from coal to coke furnaces and began producing coke pig iron in 1876. The company changed hands again in 1876, as investors from Louisville and Cincinnati purchased the Oxmoor furnaces and created the Eureka Company.

In 1904, Frank Nelson Jr. founded the Empire Coal Company to mine 14,000 acres of land in Walker County. Nelson purchased land formerly managed by Henry W. Milner as the Empire Coal and Coke Company. At the height of production, the company produced 200,000 tons of coal a year.

The Pratt Consolidated Coal Company was created in 1904 by combining the Pratt Coal Company, Nunley Ridge Coal Company, Ivy Coal and Iron Company, Gamble Mines Company, Townley Mining Company, and Tracy City mines. The company's holdings consisted of fifty-four mines and 85,000 acres of land in Alabama and Tennessee. T.T. Hillman served as the company's first president, and Erskine Ramsay served as the company's first vice president.

Henry F. DeBardeleben founded DeBardeleben Coal and Iron Company in 1886. The company merged with Tennessee Coal, Iron, and Railroad Company in March 1892. DeBardeleben remained on the company's board of directors until he resigned in October 1894.

The Cullman Coal and Coke Company was founded in May 1909. The company owned 12,600 acres of land in Cullman County, Alabama. As of 1915, the company was owned by Parker Bank and Trust Company.

Sources: Poor's Manual of Industrialists: Volume 7. New York: Poor's Manual Company, 1916. Armes, Ethel. The Story of Coal and Iron in Alabama. Birmingham: Birmingham Chamber of Commerce, 1910