Henry Fairchild De Bardeleben was an American industrialist, the president of the Pratt Coal & Coke Company, former of the De Bardeleben Coal & Iron Company and the Pinckard & De Bardeleben Land Company, vicepresident of he Tennessee Coal, Iron & Railroad Company. De Bardeleben’s Red Mountain seam, with his Pratt coal seam, was the basis for the development of industrial Birmingham.
Background
Henry Fairchild De Bardeleben was born on July 22, 1840. He was the descendant of a Hessian captain who landed in South Carolina during the Revolution to serve against the colonies. De Bardeleben’s father, Henry, had migrated to Alabama where he married Jennie Fairchild of New York. He died when his son was ten years of age. The mother subsequently moved to Montgomery where the boy secured work in a grocery.
Education
When he was sixteen he became the ward of Daniel Pratt, the first great industrial magnate of Alabama, whose plants were at Prattville, a few miles from Montgomery. Young De Bardeleben lived in the Pratt mansion and attended school.
Career
He was made “boss” of the teamsters and foreman of the lumber-yard, and later superintendent of the gin factory. Upon the outbreak of the Civil War he joined the Prattville Dragoons in the Confederate service, serving at Pensacola and in the Shiloh campaign.
In 1872, when Pratt, the wealthiest man in the state, turned his attention toward the district surrounding Birmingham—which town had been founded in the previous year—bought a controlling interest in the Red Mountain Iron & Coal Company, and undertook the reconstruction of the Oxmoor furnaces and the development of the Helena mines, he made De Bardeleben manager, although the latter stated frankly that he knew nothing of making iron.
The panic of 1873 temporarily closed the works. This same year Pratt died, leaving his son-in-law the richest man in the district.
In 1877 J. W. Sloss and T. H. Aldrich interested him in the great Browne seam of coal west of Birmingham. He joined them in the Eureka Coal Company, doubling the capital. The name of the seam was changed to that of “Pratt” in honor of Daniel Pratt.
A year later the company was reorganized as the Pratt Coal & Coke Company, with De Bardeleben as president. With T. T. Hillman he built the Alice furnaces in 1879-81, naming them in honor of his eldest daughter. Fearing that he was developing tuberculosis, in 1881 he sold his holdings and went to Mexico, but was sufficiently recovered to return to Birmingham the next year, when, with W. T. Underwood, he built the Mary Pratt furnace and named it for his second daughter.
Illness again attacked him and he went to Texas. Whenever he traveled away from home his personality attracted men of means and enterprise who followed him to Birmingham.
Thus David Roberts joined him in 1886, and together they formed the De Bardeleben Coal & Iron Company. He also organized the Pinckard & De Bardeleben Land Company. These interests, with a capital of $2, 500, 000, founded the town of Bessemer, ten miles west of Birmingham, and near the great Red Mountain iron seam. Here four furnaces and an iron mill were erected. The firm held 150, 000 acres of mineral lands. The venture was the greatest up to that time in the South. All of this property in 1887 was formed into the De Bardeleben Coal & Tron Company, capitalized at $13, 000, 000.
In 1891 it was taken over by the Tennessee Coal, Iron & Railroad Company, of which De Bardeleben was made vicepresident. After three years of virtual retirement his restlessness tempted him to go to New York and make the attempt to obtain control of the company. In this effort he failed, however, losing, it is said, his entire fortune save a forgotten bank deposit of $75, 000. Indomitable in the face of ill fortune, with his sons Henry and Charles De Bardeleben, he explored new fields and started mining at Margaret in St. Claire County, Alabama, and in the Acton Basin southeast of Birmingham.
De Bardeleben’s Red Mountain seam, with his Pratt coal seam, was the basis for the development of industrial Birmingham.
He contributed to the development of his region not only through the enterprises with which he was directly connected but also by attracting to Birmingham moneyed men of ambition who established others.
President M. H. Smith of the Louisville & Nashville stated that De Bardeleben persuaded him to build the Mineral Railroad and invest in all thirty millions of the company’s funds in the district.
He was “always talking steel”; in fact he talked of it long before it was made in the Birmingham district. Through him the Caldwell interests were led to build the first rolling-mill in Birmingham. He induced J. W. Sloss to build furnaces and joined T. T. Hillman in building others. “The King of the Southern Iron World” as he was called, he was the most spectacular figure in Alabama’s industrial growth.
Achievements
Personality
Quotes from others about the person
“De Bardeleben put the whole power of his fortune, his credit, and his tremendous vitality into the advancement of the company. ” (T. H. Aldrich)
Connections
On February 4, 1863 DeBardeleben married Pratt’s second daughter, Ellen. After the death of his first wife, De Bardeleben married a sister of Judge W. P. McCroffin.