Background
Horace Ware was born on April 11, 1812, in Lynn, Massachusetts, United States. He was the son of Jonathan and Roxana Howe Ware.
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Horace Ware
Edit ProfileEducation
Horace attended schools in North Carolina and Massachusetts before settling in Bibb County, Alabama, in the 1820s, where he learned the iron business from his father.
Career
After building a waterpower forge in Bibb County, Horace Ware discovered an iron ore bed in Shelby County in 1840 and developed the cold blast furnace for manufacturing pig iron. He manufactured cooking utensils and stoves and pioneered in the rolling mill business in Alabama. In 1859, he erected a mill for the manufacture of iron bars, and he used slave labor in his factory prior to the war.
During the Civil War, he was a major partner in the Shelby Iron Works and managed iron properties in Talladega County, Alabama. The ironworks delivered 12,000 tons a year to the government. Despite labor shortages and rising costs, Ware’s efforts marked the high point of self-sustained Confederate war production.
His property was destroyed by federal troops, but Ware continued in the factory business after the war was over. In 1872, he formed the Alabama Iron Company. He sold his interest in this business in 1881 to buy the Kelly furnace in Texas, a venture which he sold in 1883.
Achievements
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Horace Ware had established in Shelby Alabama, one of the most significant industrial communities in the state, consisting of a blast furnace, forge, foundry, school, church, and enough homes to house up to several hundred people. He built the first rolling mill and permanent ironworks in the state.
Connections
Ware had seven children by his marriage to Martha Ann Woodruff. Following her death, he married Mary Harris in 1863. The couple had no children.
