youth, had ridden the distance from Virginia to Alabama on horseback. This
was before Alabama had emerged into statehood. On his faithful horse he
reached the straggling village of Montgomery with less than twenty dollars
in his pockets. Entering on life in the new region to which he had come,
as a mail contractor, he gradually rose to the direction of a line of
stage coaches for the transportation of mail and passengers, and with a
widening horizon of business tact and comprehensiveness of enterprise for
which he was remarkable, he adjusted his stage coach enterprise to a
chain of hotels, the most noted of which were located at Montgomery,
Lowndesboro and Wetumpka. These interests flourished as the people
continued to pour into the new state. As the forests were transmuted into
smiling fields, villages, and towns began to emerge into populous centers,
and institutions began to flourish. While Powell was instrumental in
making new conditions, the conditions were making Powell. A man grows by
the means which he creates. While he makes a fortune the fortune makes
him. Gifted with an enterprising and constructive mind, Mr. Powell was
gradually coming to that stage for which his life was fitting him. The
combination of conditions which followed in the wake of the turbulence of
years, was one which would arrest the enterprising eye of a man of
executive skill, and breadth of vision, which James R. Powell had. Two
unfinished lines of railway penetrated the state, in part, one reaching
from the Gulf northward, but checked by mountain barriers, the other
stretching from the fertile West southward, but halting before the
mountains, beyond which was the line with which it was destined to be
linked in the creation of one of the greatest arteries of commerce in the
South. Between the two, lay a wide barrier of mountain region, in which
were embosomed untouched treasures which were destined in their
development to excite the interest of the world.
With these resources was associated in the fertile brain of James R.
Powell, the picture of a mineral metropolis in the mountains of north
Alabama, and in a region where men least dreamed of such a possible
creation. He had engineered primitive mail routes, first on horseback, and
later by the rumbling coach, and widening the expansion of interest and
effort by the establishment of timely hostelries, but here he was destined
to crown his unusual career as the builder of a mighty city. Hence,
Birmingham.
In the rush and rattle of a great mart, such as Birmingham has become,
those of a later generation, who throng its streets of architectural
magnificence, and gaze on its piles of splendor, are apt to forget those
who laid the foundation stones of the great municipality, and made
possible a mighty urban center, destined to eclipse all others of the
South in compass and in the number of its people. Men are apt to tread
with careless feet over the unmarked graves of the harbingers of that
bequeathed to a later generation, forgetful of the brain which contrived
and the hand which executed.
It is not the phrase of empty eulogium to speak of James R. Powell as one
of the greatest of Alabamians. Unlettered in the schools, he followed the
unerring finger of a transparent judgment, and unawed by formidableness of
difficulty or vastness of scheme, he planned and wrought, both wisely,
and, propelled by a pluck born of the enthusiasm of patience, he
succeeded. The career of a man like this in a generation, or even in a
century, is a vital inspiration, and far worthier of record more
elaborate, than a brief and humble sketch like this.
Incidents in his career illustrative of his native and inherent greatness,
are worthy of at least a casual notice not only, but of permanent
embalmment in the memories of those who reaped where he sowed. Men like
the subject of the present sketch are apt to be thought of as sordid and
selfish, while with intensity of spirit and strenuousness of brow, they
drive impetuously over obstruction, forgetful of the gentler amenities of
life. Oftener, however, than is supposed, there is beneath the intense
exterior, hearts of corresponding compass with the sweep of executive
activity. There were many instances of gentle and substantial worth woven
into the career of Colonel Powell, only one of which is here given.
The record of the severity of the winter of 1863 is phenomenal in
meteorological chronicles. The lakes and ponds were covered with a thick
stratum of ice. An object of wonder to many, the phenomenon addressed
itself to the practical side of the mind of Colonel Powell, who cut large
quantities of the ice and carefully stored it away. The manufacture of ice
was then practically unknown as a commodity for market, and it was in
great demand in the hospitals of the Confederacy. He declined an offer of
forty thousand dollars for his store of ice, and presented it to the
Confederate army hospital department, for use in Alabama and Georgia. Many
acts of generous spirit were his, but they belong to the chronicles of
unwritten history.
In 1871, James R. Powell, at the head of the famous Elyton Land Company,
was scouring the territory of Jefferson County with the plan in view of
founding here a large city, the logical result of the immense resources
embedded in the hills and mountains of this favored region. The
Louisville & Nashville Railroad had supplied the missing link between the
North and South, and Colonel Powell was among the first to see the
possibility of a great city in this region. While the local and adjacent
resources were then only imperfectly known, they were sufficiently known
to justify the colossal proposal of a mighty emporium. The task was
herculean, but the projector was a man of wide experience in grappling
with odds, and in subordinating to the mastery of his will the disputing
difficulties. Small minds quarrel and quibble over points of
inconsequence, while giants stride over them with serene non-recognition.
Without tiring, Colonel Powell gave the world accounts of the fabulous
resources of the district of the prospective city. The facts first
published throughout the United States and Europe, were first regarded as
speculative rose-water, but they in truth represented only a stiver of
that which subsequently came to be known.
Birmingham was first a straggling, struggling village, penetrated here and
there at irregular distances, by rugged highways, the terror of the driver
in a rainy season. Diminutive houses dotted the scene over, without
respect to order or system. One small brick structure stood where now
stands the Brown-Marx Building, then the most substantial expression of
confidence yet given. Highways of deep red clay ran past the building on
either side, and among the shanties and small houses was an occasional
dingy tent.
Under such conditions, Colonel Powell, with his usual daring, ventured to
invite the session of the Alabama Press Association to hold its session
in "the city of Birmingham," in 1873. He succeeded, but, not content with
this, he appeared before the body and again pleaded that the following
session be held here also. He encountered stout opposition for two
reasons, namely, Birmingham was a most uninviting place, without
accommodation, and other places of the state wanted the next session. But,
combining diplomacy with suavity, Powell prevailed a second time. Having
succeeded in this, he urged that the New York Press Association, which
would be meeting at the same time, be invited to join their brethren of
the quill in Alabama. Such temerity staggered the body. Besides the ragged
and rugged conditions existing, the New York press was hostile to that of
the South, because of its opposition to President Grant in his southern
policy. Insuperable seemed the barriers in the way of such an
accomplishment as Colonel Powell sought, but he overbore all obstruction,
and succeeded.
The result of such movement, coupled with the geological investigations
going steadily on meanwhile, made Birmingham secure. The voice of the
northern press resounded throughout all the states, and went beyond the
Atlantic. Honorable Abram S. Hewitt, of New York, sounded the prophetic
expression: "The fact is plain--Alabama is to become the iron
manufacturing center of the habitable globe." A wave of awakening light
spread throughout the financial world, and Birmingham was secure.
But a new disaster arose. A scourge of Asiatic cholera smote the young
city now struggling to the birth. The dead were numerous, and a funeral
pall hung over the town. Colonel Powell remained with Roman courage on
the ground, caring for the suffering, burying the dead, and preserving
order. Pestilence stalked along the rugged streets and wasted at noonday,
but the faith of this man of iron nerve was unshaken. His courage
stiffened that of others--his faith was contagious. No wonder that he came
to be called "The Duke of Birmingham." No special shaft marks the
recognition of this mighty builder of a great city, but the city attests
his power. In the dim light in St. Paul's, in London, the tourist reads a
tablet, "Christopher Wren, builder. Would you seek his monument? Look
around." Not otherwise is the relation of Greater Birmingham to James R.
Powell. Its towering turrets and lofty buildings, its residence palaces
and shaded streets, its smoking stacks and hives of mineral mines, and its
numerous railway lines with their cargoes of daily traffic--these are his
monument.
That one so great and noble should come to a death so novel and untimely
is a mystery. He fell a victim to a pistol fired by a beardless youth in a
Mississippi tavern, in 1883. For all the future his monument will stand,
Alabama's greatest city.
H. F. DeBARDELEBEN
In the year 1851 there might have been seen working in a grocery store, in
Montgomery, a sprightly lad of ten, whose father had just died, and whose
mother had removed to the Capital City. This boy was Henry DeBardeleben,
destined to become prominent not alone in the development of the resources
of the state of Alabama, but a picturesque figure in the coal and iron
industry of the South.
Friendships of other days had united the Pratts and the DeBardelebens,
which led to the guardianship of the lad by Alabama's pioneer
manufacturer, Daniel Pratt, under whom Mr. DeBardeleben was directly and
fortunately fitted for life. His academic course over, the young man was
placed as superintendent over the famous gin factory at Prattville. Mr.
DeBardeleben found in business a more congenial air than he found in
books. The harness of work in the supervision of a manufactory was more
easily adjusted to the young man than was that of the schoolroom, and the
young man shed the one and gladly donned the other, for, from the outset,
he cared but little for books, only as they could be used as tools to
bring something to pass.
In the new sphere in which he now was, young DeBardeleben was of just the
cast of temperament to seize the principles of business, work them into
habit, and translate them into life. He learned those under the tutelage
of Daniel Pratt, and in later years often alluded to them by the power of
association with conditions encountered in future life. For instance, Mr.
Pratt would never allow a piece of timber the least defective to be used
in the manufacture of gins. It must be thoroughly seasoned, and be sound
in every respect. Then, too, no defect must be sought to be concealed by
an oversmear of paint, but solid merit must be in every splinter, screw
and nail. Besides, no promise must be made that was not to be literally
kept, if possible, and all bills must be promptly met to the day. In
addition still, there must be no lounging or lolling during working hours,
for idleness was akin to criminality in the mind of Daniel Pratt, and
things must move while they were working.
Easily susceptible, the young man grasped these as cardinal principles of
life, and they became to him abiding oracles for which he cherished the
highest regard. Becoming the son-in-law of Mr. Pratt, marrying his only
daughter, and, indeed, his only child, Mr. DeBardeleben necessarily became
the more intimate with the proprietor and father-in-law.
One of the first interests enlisting the attention of Mr. DeBardeleben was
that of a central system of railway through the heart of Alabama. A
railroad from the Gulf reached the base of the mountains of north Alabama,
but there it stopped. From the opposite direction another descended from
Nashville into Alabama, and likewise stopped on the opposite side of the
mountains. To see this missing link supplied by the knitting together of
the two ends was a matter of deep concern to Mr. DeBardeleben, and he
rested not till it was done. That accomplished, the opening of the
resources embedded in the mountains and hills of north Alabama enlisted
him. As he came to learn more of these abounding deposits his enthusiasm
was enlisted as never before, and visions of accomplishment rose before
him to lure him to fresher endeavor. It is not possible within the narrow
compass of a slight sketch even to name the enterprises to which he set
his hand, and only the barest outline of the man and of his achievements
is possible.
The combination of elements in his character was exceedingly rare. He was
a great and perpetual dreamer, but his dreaming was of the solid and
constructive sort. No day dreams nor woven rainbows were his, merely for
entertainment of lazy hours. He pictured possibilities, not visionary
vacuities. He had poetry in his being, but it was the poetry that was
practical. He was a great poet and a great business prince combined. He
was not unmindful of the formidableness of difficulty, but it inspired
rather than deterred him. Underneath the ardor of the man was a solid
substratum of calculation, and a calculation that took into account
herculean effort. His penetration was sharp, quick and decisive.
In this sweeping delineation the fact is not overlooked that Mr.
DeBardeleben was forced to succumb to the inevitable when Birmingham fell
a victim to the cholera scourge, and equally to the prostration occasioned
by the memorable Black Friday in Wall street, the effects of which event
fell with crashing weight on every interest throughout the Union. Furnaces
grew cold, the pick in the mine lay idle, eager laborers sat holding
their hands in idleness, and a nightmare fell on the nation throughout. To
have known Birmingham in those days would have been to know a forlorn
town, straggling and gloomy, while the environing districts were silent
and smokeless.
But the darkness gradually wore back to light.
With the return of dawn, men were open-eyed for advantage in the great
mineral domains of Alabama. Mr. DeBardeleben returned to Birmingham in
1877 with an immense fortune at his command, for he was the successor of
Daniel Pratt. Now he became united with Colonel Sloss and Mr. T. H.
Aldrich, names forever inseparable from the history of the mineral
development of north Alabama, and an invincible trio it was.
In the immense enterprises now entered on by the three, there was
sufficient in the colossal proportions of the undertakings for the
adjustment and adaptation of the peculiar gifts of all. Mr. DeBardeleben
was the chief planner and sagacious seer of the group, and daring he was
in all the enterprises proposed, but he was willing not alone to see, but
to do. The expansive fields of ore constantly challenged his highest
forces of enthusiasm and energy, and he chafed under his own limitations,
as a man, to meet the challenge forthwith. Dreaming in the solid way
already indicated, planning by day and night, and meanwhile always doing,
Mr. DeBardeleben was a prodigious factor of development in this marvelous
district.
It was the dawn of a great era in the history of the Birmingham district
when Henry Fairchild DeBardeleben combined his immense energy and equally
immense fortune in its development. He took the refluent tide of
prosperity at its fountain, and, directing it into new channels,
rehabilitated the district, and in the transformation made others
forgetful of the preceding gloom. Indifferent to fame, he was intent on
gratifying his unceasing enterprise and energy by seeing the strides of
development made.
WILLIAM C. OATES
Altogether worthy of enrollment among the great men of Alabama, is the
name of Governor William C. Oates. His service to the state for many years
was varied and loyal. He was crowned with honors by his countrymen and was
altogether worthy. Reared to manhood with only ordinary educational
advantages, he was for many years recognized as one of the foremost
citizens of the state. He was a man of solid qualities without the glint
of the picturesque or the foil of the superficial. Honesty was his purpose
in life, and in view of this quality, his faults were as transparent as
were his merits. In no cause or issue was there a misapprehension of his
position. If in some respects he was rugged, it was due to the fact that
he did not propose to pose for that which he was not. He had his enemies,
but they were no more cordial in their opposition than were his numerous
and strong friends in their attachment and loyalty.
In the dawn of manhood he gave but little promise of success. Leaving home
at the age of sixteen, he roved the far Southwest for a period of years,
struck the hard sides of life, and returned to his home more matured in
wisdom by his bitter experience, and came to realize the necessity of
stability of plan and purpose in order to succeed. In the raw region of
Henry County, as it then was, Oates taught a rural school for a period of
months, later readdressed himself to study, and finished his course at a
high school at Lawrenceville. At that time the bar opened the widest and
most inviting gateway to eminence, and Oates aspired to be a lawyer.
In the office of Pugh, Bullock & Buford, at Eufaula, the rustic aspirant
learned the principles of his chosen profession, and was admitted to the
bar in 1858. Locating in the rural village of Abbeville, the seat of
justice of Henry County, he rose to be the leading lawyer of southeast
Alabama, and gradually came to be recognized as one of the best lawyers of
the state. His matter-of-fact manner and sturdy honesty won him a wide
circle of confidence, and men would ride on horseback long distances to
engage his professional service.
The rural press was not so abundant at that early day as it has since
become, and because of a lack of representation in that then inaccessible
region, he edited a newspaper at Abbeville. He was engaged in the combined
functions of editing a country journal and practicing law, when the storm
of war broke over the land in 1861. Raising a company of volunteers, he
became the captain, and was attached to the Fifteenth Alabama Regiment of
Infantry. He led his command into twenty-seven battles and became
conspicuous for his courage on the field. He received his commission as
colonel in 1863, and received a wound at Brown's Ferry, on the Tennessee
River, near the close of that year. At Fussell's Mills, near Petersburg,
Va., he sustained the loss of his right arm, but after recovering from the
wound, he resumed the command of his regiment, which command he retained
until the close of the war.
Returning to Abbeville after his capitulation, Colonel Oates again took
up his practice, and came to be esteemed one of the leading citizens of
the state. With all important movements in the state he was connected, and
his practice meanwhile became immense, so that Colonel Oates came to be
regarded not only as one of the most successful and leading lawyers of the
state, but one of the most prosperous. In many ways his name was
prominently known throughout the state, and a number of times mentioned in
connection with gubernatorial honors. This was notably true in the two
conventions for the nomination of a governor in the years 1870 and 1872.
In 1870 he represented Henry County in the state legislature, where he
became a distinguished leader. His service as a legislator brought him
still more prominently before the public. He was a member of the
constitutional convention in 1875, and from 1881 to 1894 he served his
district, the third Alabama, in the National Congress. His long and useful
career in congress gave him an influence second to that of none other of
the Alabama delegation. He was serving in congress when he was chosen
governor of the state in 1895.
Shortly after this came the monetary slogan of the free coinage of silver
at the sixteen-to-one ratio, of which William Jennings Bryan was the
apostle, and Governor Oates was with the minority of eminent Alabamians
who resisted the doctrine, in consequence of which he paid the penalty of
defeat at the polls for the national senatorship in a subsequent election.
When the Spanish-American War began in 1898 Governor Oates was
commissioned a brigadier general and served throughout the ninety-three
days of that sharp and decisive contest.
He was again chosen a member of the convention which revised the state
constitution, in which body his services were of immense value to Alabama.
His closing years were spent in the city of Montgomery, where he continued
to practice law till compelled by failure of vision to surrender it. He
died at an advanced age.
Reviewing a sketch so brief and imperfect, and one altogether unworthy of
his long career of usefulness, we are enabled to glean sufficient to learn
that for a full half century Governor Oates was engaged in contributing to
the growth and development of the state. The stations filled by him with
ability so signal, and extending through so many years, attest his
usefulness as a valuable citizen of Alabama. As a lawyer of distinction, a
soldier as courageous as any son of Alabama, a delegate in molding the
fundamental law of the commonwealth, a statesman whose qualities were
signally demonstrated in the halls of congress, and in the gubernatorial
chair, there is due him the worthiest praise. Solid rather than brilliant,
rugged rather than polished, useful rather than ornate, and substantial
without the alloy of artificiality, there were embodied in Governor Oates
elements of genuine greatness. In nothing mediocre, he rendered a
permanent service to Alabama and went to his grave as one of the state's
most distinguished public servants.
JONATHAN HARALSON
Judge Jonathan Haralson was an eminent type of that generation of southern
gentlemen who were a connecting link between the old and the new South. He
had just reached the threshold of cultured manhood when the crash of war
came. He was of the finished mold of the young southerners of that period.
He descended from a noble stock that was pre-eminent in southern society
and in the affairs of his native section. His father belonged to that
wealthy class of typical planters that gave prestige to the South on two
continents. His uncle, General Hugh A. Haralson, was one of the most
distinguished congressmen from Georgia, and for many years together was
one of the most learned jurists of that state.
Graduating from the University of Alabama in 1851, Judge Jonathan Haralson
studied law and was admitted to the bar a year later, but in order to
equip himself thoroughly he went to the law school of the University of
Louisiana, where he spent a year and obtained his degree of LL.B. He
immediately entered on the practice in Selma, where he became eminent as a
citizen, barrister, and an active Christian.
When, in 1876, the legislature of Alabama organized the city court of
Selma, a court of common law with civil, criminal and equity jurisdiction,
the bar of Dallas County recommended Judge Haralson to Governor Houston
for the judgeship of this court. For sixteen years he presided over the
court with signal ability. At the end of that time he was elected to the
supreme bench of the state, where he served for twelve years.