1978 – The Alabama Business Hall of Fame

Paschal Green Shook

September 20th, 2021

Paschal Green Shook was born into the iron business, and over his lifetime made great contributions to the life and progress of Alabama.

Shook began his career with the Southern Iron Company of Chattanooga, a firm organized by his father. Two years later, the Tennessee company moved its headquarters to Birmingham, and Shook came as a stenographer to the firm’s general manager. Shook’s first major assignment came in 1896 when TCI’s president asked him to investigate the prospect of making steel in Birmingham. Shook’s perceptive report recommended open-hearth furnaces for steel production. TCI organized the Alabama Steel and Shipbuilding Company to handle plant construction and ensuing steel production. As secretary and treasurer of the new subsidiary, Shook assisted his father in the building of the plant, and upon its completion, Shook became assistant general superintendent of the operating facility. Several years later the company was bought and Shook lost his position. Shook and John F. Fletcher decided to form their own business, Shook and Fletcher Supply. In 1903, Shook married, Caroline Belle Sharpe. When Shook’s brother entered the business, the company expanded into mining operations, and this expansion coincided with World War I and increased demand for iron products. Shook was also a major civic benefactor. He served on the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce, the Birmingham Community Chest, the Birmingham Chapter of the American Red Cross, and the Jefferson County Tuberculosis Sanitarium. Both Birmingham Southern College and Howard College awarded him honorary degrees in 1946.

Daniel Pratt

September 17th, 2021

Daniel Pratt helped provide cotton gins for Alabama’s predominant antebellum economic activity, founded Alabama’s most prominent early industrial town, and helped lay the foundation for postbellum development in manufacturing and railroad transportation.

In 1819, Pratt left his home state of New Hampshire and traveled to Savannah, where he worked for a year as a carpenter. In 1827, Pratt returned to New Hampshire for a visit and met and married Ester Ticknor. In 1831, Pratt realized the advantage of taking cotton gin manufacturing to fresher cotton fields and Pratt and his wife left for Alabama. In 1938, Pratt purchased land on Autauga Creek. It was on this land that Pratt would realize a lifelong goal: the building of a town, Prattville, as the site for his enterprises. He established a cotton gin factory, a cotton mill, a grist mill, a woolen mill, and a foundry, which combined, employed more than 200 people. By the late 1800s, Pratt’s gin business had grown so large that he contracted with mercantile firms in six strategically located cities to sell his gins. Pratt had become the largest cotton gin manufacturer in the world. At the end of the Civil War, Pratt shifted his reliance upon a cotton economy to the new industrial order: iron and railroad transportation. In 1949, the Alabama Newcomen Society honored Pratt posthumously as “Alabama’s First Industrialist.”

Ed Leigh McMillan

September 17th, 2021

Ed Leigh McMillan started out to be a good country lawyer but became “Mr. Forester” because of his leadership in the lumber industry.

At an early age, McMillan developed a great respect for the law and history, a devotion that he clung to throughout his life. McMillan received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1909 and a Bachelor of Law degree in 1910 from The University of Alabama. McMillan moved to Brewton, married Iva Lee Miller, and began to practice law. In 1914, he became a legal advisor to the T.R. Miller Mill Company Incorporated of Brewton. McMillan became president of Wiggins Estate Company, director of Cedar Creek Store Company, president of the old Citizens Bank, and leader of the First Methodist Church. He was also the state chairman of the Liberty Loan Committee in World War I, a member of the State Banking Board from 1935-1949, president of the National Alumni Association for The University of Alabama, and chairman of the War Finance Committee for Alabama from 1941-1946. In 1950, McMillan was named president of T.R. Miller Mill Company, becoming the head of the oldest lumber business in continuous operation in Alabama. He was quick to recognize the advantages of the scientific forestry approach to the timber industry; advocate the protection of forests from fire, disease, and insect infestation; and utilize artificial reforestation by planting seedlings on a commercial basis. McMillan played a key role in the creation of Conecuh National Forest.

James Greeley McGowin

September 17th, 2021

James Greeley McGowin was a self-made man. Early in life, McGowin began assisting his father in cutting timber, the industry in which he would make a career.

McGowin opened a mercantile business in Brewton in 1892. While developing the successful business, McGowin met and fell in love with Essie Teresa Stallworth. The couple married in 1898. In 1903, McGowin sold his interest in the mercantile store and moved to Mobile to join his brothers in the lumber exporting business. Two years later, McGowin joined with his brothers and a brother-in-law in purchasing the W.T. Smith Lumber Company in Chapman, Alabama. The early period of McGowin’s management of the company was one of intense competition. “Cut out and get out” was a dominant philosophy, but McGowin stayed with the land, purchasing and merging with neighboring mills. In 1925, McGowin became president of the company, a position he held for the rest of his life. Many southern timber industries began to suffer as old timber began to run out, and reforestation had not yet produced new timber. Diversification and the use of all possible timber were the ways McGowin met the problem. McGowin’s main avocations were his farm south of Chapman and the development of a wildlife conservation area. He was active in trade organizations such as the Southern Pine Association. He devoted much of his time to the Universalist Church. One of McGowin’s sons described his father: “Truly, James Greeley McGowin was one of the mightiest pines.”

Robert Jemison Jr.

September 17th, 2021

Robert Jemison, Jr. left the imprint of a major builder on Birmingham.

Jemison, the descendant of pioneer business entrepreneurs, was educated at The University of Alabama and the University of the South (Sewanee). Jemison began his business career in 1899 as a hardware store clerk, laying the foundation for his subsequent career in real estate. In 1901, he married Virginia Earle Walker. Jemison launched the Jemison Real Estate and Insurance Company in 1903. In less than a decade, his real estate developments had made a major mark on the city: Ensley Highlands, Earle Place, Central Park, Mountain Terrace, and Bush Hills. In 1907, he served as president of the National Alumni Association for The University of Alabama. In 1910, he developed the Tutwiler Hotel. In 1916, he was elected the first chairman of the Birmingham chapter of the American Red Cross. The 1920s marked a time of civic involvement for Jemison. He began many years of service as a trustee for the University of the South and Alabama hospitals, as well as serving as president of the National Association of Real Estate Boards. Jemison was responsible for the development of the Mountain Brook area, thought by many to be too far from the business district to be successful. His contribution to the area was commended with the City of Mountain Brook dedicating Jemison Park in his honor. In 1971, he was elected one of the ten greatest men of Birmingham in a centennial poll by the city’s Chamber of Commerce.