Induction Year: 1979

Herbert Eugene Westervelt

  • September 20th, 2021

Herbert Eugene Westervelt pioneered the modern paper industry in his chosen home state, Alabama, when his company’s far-flung pulp, paper, converting, and administrative operation were consolidated in Tuscaloosa in 1929 under the new name of Gulf States Paper Corporation.

His farsightedness and perseverance put him in the vanguard of that industrial revolution which brought new prosperity to the Southern economy.

Westervelt was born in the frontier town, Oskaloosa, Iowa, on November 20, 1858. His father, a graduate of Oberlin College and a Congregational minister, later moved the family back to Oberlin, Ohio, where proper educational advantages were available for young eight-year-old Herb and the older boys approaching college age. To supplement the meager income of a minister, Father Westervelt opened a small grocery business. All four boys helped in the little store, which opened its doors at 6 p.m. and took orders through the evenings. Herbert and his brothers made deliveries at night, pulling a two-wheeled cart on their rounds. Their hurried evening meals consisted of cheese and crackers, consumed in such amounts that his daughter later recalled, “I cannot remember that my father ever willingly ate a bite of cheese in later life!”

A penny and a nickel at a time, young Herb saved his money. At last, he accumulated a $75 hoard, which he invested in a sight-unseen gold mine! Years later, he observed the only gold he got out of the venture was the seal on the stock certificate and a lot of golden experience.

Those early days, with the brothers working together, not only laid seeds of business acumen but established a perseverance and family tradition of cooperation which was the springboard for the paper company that is still today family-owned.

After two years at Oberlin College, young Westervelt felt his parents had sacrificed enough to educate their sons (the oldest three had graduated) and he determined to make his own contributions to his family. By the time he was28 years of age, he had proved a claim of 400 acres in Dakota Territory, where his parents had begun a new frontier mission; worked as a salesman for a wholesale paper business established by his oldest brother, Ed; had become a partner in the new Marseilles (Indiana) Paper Company which made a coarse, brittle wrapping paper from wheat straw; and had established his own affiliated business selling paper, bags, and twine under the name of South Bend Paper Company.

“Brother Herb got his brains from Mother and his sense from Father, and he had plenty of both,” recalled Brother Ed in later years, who had asked Herb to run another paper mill at Springfield, Illinois, in 1887. His salary was to come from what profits he could produce, and within three years Herb owned the mill, as he and his brother had planned. He had also set up another paper jobbing business, which ranged into surrounding states selling plain and printed sacks, sheet and roll papers, twine, butter plates, oyster pails, and a host of other paper products of the day.

By 1891, as the owner of a prospering paper manufacturing and merchandising concern, he was one of Springfield’s most promising young men. Now he started another venture he had been postponing for a long time; the patient Miss Emma Neilson of Marseilles, Illinois, became Mrs. Herbert Eugene Westervelt. Two years later, farsighted Herb sold out to a large corporation that was trying to monopolize the straw paper business, then turned right around to prove that there still was a definite role for the small independent paper manufacturer.

The Prairie State Paper Company of Taylorville, Illinois was incorporated at the end of 1893, with Herb owning 60% of the stock. Proving his resourcefulness, he purchased the large boiler house to be dismantled from the Chicago World’s Fair and arranged for it to be sent to Taylorville, along with additional lumber from other buildings. Almost-new papermaking machinery came from a defunct operation in Nebraska. “It was all cheap,” he reported, adding, “It had to be for us.”

The Taylorville firm made a good start, and in 1897 a converting operation was added for the manufacture of satchel-bottomed sugar bags. But Westervelt’s puzzle-solving genius was challenged to patent a machine that would make multi-purpose bags that would fold out “to stand on their own bottoms.” For the next few years, he led a hectic life, traveling for his paper firm and working diligently in his machine shop at his home in South Bend. Before long he had the promise of a machine that in many respects was simpler and made a better product than any existing machines, which were protected by more than 200 patents.

And so the E-Z Opener was invented, the paper bags that opened “with a flick of the wrist,” which became the standard grocery bag in America. The company’s byword soon became “Quality Counts,” and throughout the years that motto was reflected from every phase of operations.

The first full set of the new grocery bag machines expanded the operations of the South Bend Paper Company. To meet orders, work often had to be on an overtime basis. All available males turned out to run the machines, including the rangy gentleman from the front office. With shined shoes and blue serge peeking out from under striped coveralls, he was called “Uncle Sam” by his employees. The coveralls even had stars on the edges.

Prairie State Paper also became primarily a paper bag manufacturer. Then an operation was added at Fulton, New York, and another near Mexico City. In 1911, the Illinois operations were moved to Decatur. With 60 bag machines and a number of presses, the new plant had much more capacity. E-Z Opener was on the march.

Herb Westervelt had helped pioneer the paper bag industry. Now he was to take a leading part in another phase of the industry: paper’s move to the South.

Scandinavian wood pulps had recently introduced kraft paper to the country. In 1912 E-Z Opener established a bag factory in Orange, Texas, to make the very first bags from the first kraft paper made successfully from southern pine. It soon became apparent to Westervelt that the future of the entire paper industry lay in the forests of the southern states, and he committed E-Z Opener Bag firmly and permanently to the growth of the paper industry in the South.

An idle pulp and paper mill, built to utilize the refuse from sugar cane, was obtained in 1916 at Braithwaite, Louisiana, a few miles below New Orleans. It was a rusty, wreck of a place, but had potential. E-Z Opener converted the machinery for wood pulp use, and the mill assured a supply of paper through the war years. In 1918 the Fulton, New York bag factory was moved to New Orleans to be near the Braithwaite operation.

Disaster upon disaster was to be encountered at Braithwaite. Major fires and floods took their toll, but each time, persevering Herb Westervelt saw to it that the mill emerged a more modern and efficient operation as it was rebuilt. But still, the Louisiana facilities were too small and too uneconomical to meet product demand.

A search began throughout the South for a suitable new plant site. Tuscaloosa, Alabama, was selected. There were plentiful supplies of pulpwood, coal, lime, water, labor, and good transportation facilities. Here E-Z Opener built Alabama’s first modern pulp and paper mill, with its connected bag factory. In April 1929, southern kraft paper began rolling off the new machine in Tuscaloosa. In keeping with his commitment to his new corporate home in Alabama, all facilities, including administrative functions, were consolidated in Tuscaloosa, and the firm was renamed Gulf States Paper Corporation.

Herbert Eugene Westervelt was now in his seventies, and much of the daily operations were turned over to his colleagues-many of whom had stayed with him from the company’s beginning days in the mid-west-and to his daughter, Mildred Westervelt Warner, who became executive vice president.

Over the years, Westervelt had developed strong associates and had encouraged them to shoulder the responsibilities of the business, and now inspiration still came from the quiet, avid world traveler. His outstanding characteristic, his daughter noted, was his balanced sense of values.

‘That is why he would meet the big troubles and tragedies of life with unflinching courage and unfailing patience,” she said. Not only did he meet business and industry problems head-on, as well as fires and floods of facilities, but he experienced the untimely deaths of his youngest daughter and a grandson.

His death on September 3, 1938, came as a blow not only to his devoted family and to the company, which he had led for 54 years, but to the paper industry as a whole.

The minister of the First Presbyterian Church, in which denomination Westervelt rendered noted Christian service, spoke tellingly of Herbert Eugene Westervelt’s career:

He set his heart on big things. There are men who spend their lives, if not on trivialities, at least on the secondary things of life … Mr. Westervelt made a selection of three great objectives: his church, his home, his business.

His quality counted.

Thomas Dameron Russell

  • September 20th, 2021

Thomas Dameron Russell, one of the first two living inductees to the Alabama Business Hall of Fame, carries forward an illustrious name in the history of the textile industry in the South.

That history is so intertwined with the Russell family of Alexander City as to be almost inseparable.

Tom Russell was born in 1903 in Alexander City, the second son of Benjamin Russell and Roberta McDonald Russell.

Benjamin Russell founded Russell Mills in 1902 and his three sons and daughter grew up during the pioneer days of the firm. The three boys all finished high school in Alexander City, working summers in almost every job connected with the family business, and then going on to The University of Alabama before returning to take a place beside their father.

Tom Russell completed his college work in 1925, and after a short tour of Europe became purchasing agent for Russell Mills and assistant to his father. The assistant’s title carried broad duties, and Russell remembers well that his father had him doing many things: unloading bricks, lime, and mortar and performing any other duty that needed doing. He worked in the mornings in the mill office and in the afternoons in the spinning mill.

By 1926, Tom Russell had been appointed Vice-President of the Russell Foundry, serving as general manager of this operation until 1941. In the 1930s, he along with his brothers, Benjamin Commander Russell and Robert Alston Russell, became Vice-Presidents of the Russell Manufacturing Company. Later his sister, Elisabeth Russell Alison, was also appointed as a Vice-President. In December of 1941, shortly after the opening of the Second World War, their father’s long and fruitful life ended. Tom Russell became President of Russell Foundry, and his brother Ben succeeded their father as President of the Russell Manufacturing Company. Under this administration, the company continued to expand to meet the nation’s military needs during the Second World War. The Russell Mills responded magnificently, and clothing flowed in ever-increasing quantities to the Armed Forces.

The war years wore heavily on Ben Russell, an excellent leader of men. In late 1944-45, he became ill and in January 1945, he died. Tom Russell became President of the company. Russell moved into a very difficult situation. With war’s end, a tremendous increase in demand for textiles ensued, taxes were lowered, and manpower returned from the front. To the casual observer, it would have seemed a heyday for the textile manufacturing industry, but inherent problems also existed. During the war, it was impossible to obtain new machinery or to repair worn-out machinery. Thus, it was necessary for Russell to head a program of expansion, replacement, and modernization. The company expanded rapidly: new buildings were built, additional machinery was added, and existing machinery repaired, but the boom which had been caused by the end of the war also came to an end in late 1948. Low-profit margins brought the realization that the bonanza of orders and profits was not a built-in fixture of the textile industry. Conditions forced a re-examination of the position of the company and production methods. Efficiency had to be improved, economies affected across the board, new methods employed, and labor-saving machinery located and installed.

Tom Russell more than met the challenge. The company continued profitably and was in excellent shape to meet the emergency of the Korean conflict. War’s end again brought new problems. Prices hit new lows, demand for textiles dropped disastrously, inventories continued to build to almost an all-time high, and again it was time to make a very critical self-examination of production, sales, and expenses.

Another specter soon appeared in the form of competition from foreign countries. Textile products from the Far East, aided by the liberal tariff policy of the government, posed a serious threat to the American textile industry. Again Russell Mills responded by refusing to pile up excess inventories which would weaken the price structure and by introducing newer, more competitive technology.

As the years turned to decades, Tom Russell met all challenges squarely. The company continued to grow and Russell moved from the Presidency to the Chairman of the Board of an incorporated Russell Corporation.

This story could end here and be an outstanding chronicle of success, but the story of Tom Russell is a story of far more than success in business. His accomplishments outside the field of Russell Corporation, within the community, and the section at large, are legion. He can count memberships on the board, or chairmanships of the board, or positions as president or director of more than two score corporations or associations. In addition, he has served as a member of the board of trustees of four separate educational establishments and has been honored as a member of Omicron Delta Kappa and Phi Psi. He is a recipient of the William Crawford Gorgas Award, a member of the Alabama Academy of Honor, and recipient of the honorary degree of the Doctor of Laws from his alma mater, The University of Alabama.

But even more, Tom Russell and his wife, Julia, understanding fully that axiom of Thomas Jefferson that “Religion, morality, and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged,” have worked tirelessly over the decades to aid education toward the general well-being of their fellow citizens. As a recognition of the debt owed by the institutions of higher learning to Russell and his wife, college buildings located at Samford University, Alexander City Junior College, and Tuskegee Institute have been named for Thomas D. Russell and buildings at The University of Alabama and the University of Alabama in Birmingham have been named for Thomas D. and Julia Russell. Probably no private citizen within Alabama has had his name attached to as many buildings of institutions of higher learning as has Thomas D. Russell.

Three-quarters of a century has passed since the meager beginnings of the Russell Manufacturing Corporation. Over the years that company has dealt fairly and honestly with its customers and those who worked for it. This company, through good stewardship, has been run for the benefit of its employees, the community, and the state in which it is located. Nearly twenty years ago, Thomas Russell, in telling the story of Benjamin Russell and the Russell Manufacturing Company, stated:

The Russell family has had a heritage of public trust and responsibility to uphold. Many calls are made for its members to assume duties in many phases of activity: civic, social, and business. The members of this family have always lived up to their obligations and have taken on many jobs in civic organizations and business associations and in education.

Thomas Russell has more than lived up to that heritage and responsibility in the civic, social, business, and educational fields. He has been a giant among men in his generation.

NOTE: Portions of this biography are extracted from, “Russell of Alabama,” Thomas D. Russell, the Newcomen Society in North America.

Balpha Lonnie Noojin

  • September 20th, 2021

At the beginning of the twentieth century, a standard ingredient for business or political success in Alabama was to be the descendent of a weathered confederate veteran from Central or South Alabama.

Lonnie Noojin found another way in attaining his successful position in the state. In the first place, he was born (in August 1885) in the hills of Marshall County in North Alabama, but to confuse matters even more, his grandfather, who had been sent to Alabama when he was left fatherless, returned to his native state Kentucky to don the blue, rather than the gray uniform. These circumstances apparently did not bother the exceptionally versatile Noojin; thus, he started life with no special advantages other than a sound mind and a sound body.

Noojin was educated in the public elementary and high schools about Attalla and Sand Mountain and graduated from high school in 1902. He worked for a year, to acquire enough funds to attend college, and in 1903 he entered North Alabama Conference College (Birmingham Southern). He remained there for one year and then left school to accumulate funds for further studies. He then entered The University of Alabama and received the Bachelor of Science degree from the Capstone in 1908. He was particularly active while at the University, serving as both the associate editor of the student newspaper and the school annual and also as president of the University Glee Club. When Phi Beta Kappa was reactivated in 1913 at the University for the first time since Civil War Days, he was one of the few former students chosen for induction.

Noojin was a superb athlete and was an outstanding member of the University baseball team Following graduation, he played professional baseball in a number of minor leagues in the South, ultimately playing in the major leagues for the Cincinnati Reds. After his playing days, he served as manager of the Asheville team in the Carolina League.

Noojin moved from professional baseball into education, and for some years taught at the Agricultural School in Blountsville, and for one year at the Agricultural School in Albertville. His tenure in Albertville was a fortunate period in his life, for there he met Willie Lucille McNaron, a granddaughter of the town’s founder, Major L. S. Emmet, a member of the historical Robert Emmet family of Dublin, Ireland. He married her in December of 1916.

From Albertville, he was invited to Howard College in Birmingham (Samford University) as Director of Athletics, coach of football and baseball, and Principal of Howard Academy High School. After some years at Howard, he was summoned to the Capstone in 1915 as Director of Athletics and Instructor in Romance Languages. To look at his record, we surmise that giants walked the earth in those days, for it is recorded that not only was he Director of Athletics, but also Instructor of English, French, and Spanish as well as Physics and Chemistry. Considering the number of subjects Noojin was expected to teach and the additional duties assigned to him, it is not surprising that in 1919 he resigned from the university to join his brother, R. 0. Noojin, in the hardware business in Gadsden.

The Noojin brothers operated a hardware store until 1923, when they founded the Noojin Supply Company, selling both hardware and building materials. Three years later, Lonnie bought his brother’s interest in the firm and became the sole owner. Throughout the years, Noojin worked hard to make his business successful and became active in a long list of civic and philanthropic activities.

During the next four decades, he became a member of the Board of Directors of the American National Bank of Gadsden, a member of and Secretary to the Board of Directors of the Alabama Power Company, and a member of the Board of Directors of the Gadsden Chamber of Commerce. He served as Lieutenant Governor of the Alabama Kiwanis Club, member of the Gadsden Rotary Club, member of the Board of Directors of the Associated Industries of Alabama, and Chairman of the Highways User’s Conference. He also served as President of the Gadsden Music Association, the Alabama Building Material Association, and the Southern Retail Hardware Association. He was Chairman of The University of Alabama Alumni Association from 1939 to 1940 and founded the Alumni Loyalty Fund of that association. Additionally, he was President of the Board of Trustees of the Wesley Foundation for The University of Alabama, President of the Board of Trustees of the National Home and Property Owners Foundation, a member and Chairman of the Board of Stewards of the First Methodist Church of Gadsden, and a member of the Newcomen Society, the Defense Saving Bond Committee for the State of Alabama, and the Board of Trustees of The University of Alabama.

As a member of the Board of Trustees of the University, he was appointed by Governor Jim Folsom to be a member of the Steering Committee to recommend a location for the University of Alabama Medical School, which at the time was to be moved from Tuscaloosa to Birmingham. Noojin was chosen as a member of a committee whose job was to build new facilities and to acquire the existing Hillman and Jefferson hospitals. His interest in medical school was so great that he contemplated turning his business over to his son and moving temporarily to Birmingham so that he could actively oversee and protect the interest of the State and the University. Unfortunately, Noojin died before the work was completed.

In any discussion of the life of Lonnie Noojin, his political affiliations play a large part, for he was an outstanding figure in the Alabama State Republican Party. He was a member of the Republican State Committee and was for his last twelve years the Republican National Committeeman for the State of Alabama.

Noojin had a capacity for understanding problems and solving them that was long recognized in the state. As difficult as it was to be a Republican leader during the days of Franklin Roosevelt, and particularly in a one-party South, Noojin led his party with energy and diligence.

As a Republican National Committeeman, Noojin was identified with the Wilkies and the Tafts. Both he and his wife knew the Deweys quite well and the families occupied adjoining hotel suites when Dewey was nominated for President. It was rumored that Senator Taft said that if he were elected President the cabinet member he would pick from the South would be Lonnie Noojin. Even though Noojin took a stand with the minority party in Alabama, he had numerous friends among the Democrats who thought highly of him. Members of both parties knew him to be a man of his word. Democratic Lieutenant Governor of Alabama, J.C. Inzer, for example, said that:

Lonnie Noojin believed in and worked for good government. He was an able and forceful leader in all matters seeking to make our cities, state, and nation a better place in which to live. He was honest, faithful, courageous, and charitable, beloved by his family, his church, his friends, and his country. Mr. Noojin’s life was a shining example of the kind of life each of us should strive to live.

On September 7, 1950, Noojin passed away in Gadsden, Alabama, a highly successful businessman who lived gracefully and endeared himself to all who had the opportunity to know him. Perhaps his most appropriate epitaph was his own comment to a Catholic sister nurse at the Holy Name of Jesus Hospital in Gadsden: “All I have ever done which was worthwhile in my life is what I have tried to do for humanity and concerning things of the spirit.”

John Anthon Hand

  • September 20th, 2021

John Anthon Hand is one of the first two living inductees into the Alabama Business Hall of Fame.

His name is synonymous with the First National Bank of Birmingham, an institution he has faithfully served for four decades. Hand was born in Rome, Georgia, on November 18, 1901. The son of Thomas Oscar Hand and Bertha Maddox Hand, he was one of six children. His father was state manager for the State Mutual Life Insurance Company headquartered in Rome.

Hand attended public elementary and high schools in his native city. During the summers, when he was older, he began work in a bank in Macon, Georgia, filing checks. Upon graduation from high school, he was hired by the Fourth National Bank of Macon for a clerical position. The head teller at Fourth National was a close friend and when a position came open at the Farmer and Merchants Bank in Sylvester, Georgia, he urged young Hand to apply for it. Thus, Hand became the new assistant cashier at the Farmers and Merchants Bank.

After a year in this position, Hand was appointed Assistant National Bank Examiner by the Comptroller of the Currency and assigned to the Sixth Federal Reserve District. He was soon promoted to Senior Assistant National Bank Examiner.

Ellis D. Robb, his immediate supervisor, and Chief National Bank Examiner wrote:

Perhaps in the five years, I have been Chief National Bank Examiner in Atlanta of the Sixth District, there has been no more faithful, efficient assistant than has been John A. Hand.

It is my belief that Mr. Hand will make good at any bank work he may attempt in any bank anywhere.

John Hand was only twenty-six years old and was soon to embark on his long career in Birmingham.

In 1928 the Traders National Bank of Birmingham merged with the American Trust and Savings Bank to form the American-Traders National Bank with John C. Persons as President.

The Sixth Federal Reserve District sent examiners to conduct a routine audit and while the investigation was being held, Persons asked the chief examiner to recommend an auditor for the new bank. The examiner suggested John Hand. Hand accepted the position and moved to Birmingham. Before he could begin work as an auditor he received additional responsibilities. American-Traders National Bank was in the process of acquiring a number of private neighborhood banks in Birmingham and Hand was assigned to oversee the operations of these institutions. Some years later these banks became the first suburban branches of First National.

Following the Stock Market Crash of October 1929, financial institutions across the nation suffered from the ever-deepening depression. In order to protect their customers and assets, Persons suggested a merger of his bank with First National Bank of Birmingham, the city’s largest financial institution. Upon the merger on July 1, 1930, John Hand became

Comptroller at First National. Shortly afterward, he was loaned to the Reconstruction Finance Corporation to examine Alabama banks applying for federal loans.

Meanwhile, other activities consumed Hand’s time. In 1931 he attended Harvard Business School and later the School of Banking at Rutgers University where he graduated in 1936.

The following year he was promoted to Vice President at First National.

In the early 1930s, Hand began the important job of raising a family. Shortly after his arrival in Birmingham, he met Eula Elizabeth Gibson, and on November 1, 1930, they were married. They later became the parents of a daughter, Barbara, and a son, John.

Hand has always been a strong believer in community involvement and has encouraged First National personnel to become involved in civic and charitable activities. He himself has set the example. During the 1940s he was an active member of the Jefferson Hospital Board. He has served as general chairman of the Community Chest fundraising campaign and for two years as President of the Jefferson County Community Chest. He also has been a president of the Birmingham Rotary Club and the Festival of Arts and Vice Chairman of the Salvation Army. Immediately after World War II, he served as treasurer for the “Crusade for Children” drive. As Director and member of the Executive Committee of the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce, Hand has sought to attract new industry and thereby diversify the economy.

Because of his strong commitment to his community, John Hand has received many awards and honors. Among those is induction into Alabama’s Academy of Honor. Educational institutions also have recognized his contributions. In 1961 he was recognized by The University of Alabama for his support of engineering education. Ten years later the University of Alabama in Birmingham awarded him an honorary Doctor of Laws Degree. He was praised as “a banker deeply committed to improving the economic welfare of the community and the well-being of its citizens.” In 1972 he was named to the Board of Visitors of The University’s College of Commerce and Business Administration. Samford University also awarded him a Doctor of Laws Degree.

While continuing his active civic and community work, he was steadily progressing at First National. In 1953 he became Executive Vice President and a Director. In 1956 he was named President and on May 1, 1958, he became Chief Executive Officer.

During Hand’s tenure as Chief Executive Officer, First National Bank underwent an unprecedented expansion, aided by the sound banking philosophy he espoused: First, last and always I think a bank should be conservatively operated. We’ve operated this bank that way for years and years. For a bank to survive, however, it must also be aggressive and its officers must stay in contact with customers. They must make calls. If they do not, customers will be lost.

Under Hand’s guidance, the deposits grew from $326 million in 1958 to more than $780 million in 1972. In 1958 the bank had 13 branches; fourteen years later it had 29. Hand’s leadership has resulted in other significant contributions. One of the most lasting was the completion in 1971 of a new bank building located at Fifth Avenue and Twentieth Street in Birmingham. This impressive structure was a joint venture between Southern National Gas Company and First National Bank. Another significant development was the formation of the Alabama Bancorporation. The planning for this bank holding company was done in the late 1960s under Hand’s guidance. When appropriate federal legislation was passed and applications were approved by the Federal Reserve Board, the First National Bank of Birmingham joined Alabama Bancorporation in February 1972.

Because of his sound leadership, Hand was named Chairman of the Board on January 1, 1968, and on August 1, 1969, he was named Chairman of the Executive Committee. Throughout this period he retained the position of Chief Executive Officer.

Hand’s business abilities resulted in other corporations seeking him as a director. In his long career, he has served as director of some of the following companies: Protective Life Insurance, Alabama Power, Moore-Handley Hardware, Alabama Gas, Engel Mortgage, and Steward Machine. He was also a director of the Birmingham Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.

After forty-four years of banking service, John Hand retired on December 31, 1972, from the day-to-day operations of First National. He still retains several corporate directorships and remained a director with First National until February 1974. Despite the fact that he is retired, Hand visits the bank daily.

Hand’s s contribution to the banking industry, and First National, in particular, is concisely stated in his introduction to a Newcomen Society meeting: “The First National Bank’s success has been due to his personal resourcefulness, his acumen, his sound judgment, direction, and leadership.”

Charles Anglin Hamilton

  • September 20th, 2021

Charles Anglin Hamilton was born in Anniston, Alabama, on January 28, 1876, a son of James Newton and Mary Elizabeth Hamilton, pioneer settlers in Northeast Alabama.

The elder Hamilton was a carpenter. The story is told that Charles was the first child born within the city limits after Anniston’s incorporation. Certainly, the cast iron pipe industry that developed in Anniston is the history of Charles Hamilton as well.

Anniston, the Model City, was incorporated in 1872 as a private town belonging to the Woodstock Iron Company. Its early economy was, of course, based on the iron industry and manufacturing processes related to iron. Young Hamilton, or Tobe as he was nicknamed, began work at the age of eight as a water boy at Hunter’s Ore Bank in the western section of town. He literally learned the iron trade from the ground up.

By the time that Hamilton had advanced to proficiency in the art of pipe molding, he decided to start a family. In April 1897, he married Margery Embry of Calhoun County. They later became the parents of four children. Two children, Frank and Charles, learned the pipe business and followed in their father’s footsteps while another son Ralph held other financial interests in Anniston. Julia, Tobe’s daughter, married an Anniston businessman.

Hamilton’s career reads like that of a hero of a Horatio Alger novel. Hamilton never attended high school, working instead to support himself and his widowed mother. As an adult, he attended night school, but from a tender age, his education was the practical experience he could obtain for himself. His performance of early, menial chores won him the admiration of coworkers and employers, and he advanced successively to more demanding jobs. After his days as a water boy, the Anniston Pipe Company hired him to make hay rope and sift sand, both processes used in pipe molding. Hamilton remained with the company for ten years until it closed in the midst of economic depression. The Hercules Pipe Company next hired him, and he spent two years learning the art of molding and pipe ramming. The coming of the Hercules Company to Anniston did much to restore business confidence shaken by the depression years of the 1890s.

When the Hercules Company closed, Central Foundry hired him as a molder and he remained there for four years. In 1905 Anniston Foundry Company employed him as a superintendent, a position he held until 1912. During these years he was learning all aspects of pipe manufacturing and saving money to enter business on his own. In 1912, Hamilton, Major W. F. Johnston, and Thomas E. Kilby, later Governor of Alabama, purchased an inactive plant facility and formed the Alabama Pipe and Foundry Company. Hamilton was President and General Manager. Kilby served as Chairman of the Board. Soon Hamilton and his partners began purchasing other properties. In 1915 they acquired Standard Foundry and Ornamental Foundry. Five years later they purchased Lynchburg Pressure Pipe Company and thereby became the first manufacturers in Anniston of both soil and pressure pipe.

Hamilton had a policy of investing profits back into his business and his city. He believed that Anniston and its citizens could benefit from his own success, which he credited to the fact that he had faith in Anniston and remained in his hometown. “I attribute my success to the fact that I have purposely remained in Anniston,” remarked Hamilton. Once, before achieving his dream of owning a foundry, he had been offered a job in another city at double his current salary. He refused, preferring to seek his fortune in Anniston.

Hamilton also became actively involved in all phases of community life. In 1914 he was elected to the Anniston City Council. During this period there was considerable lawlessness in Anniston. Several police officers had been killed. As chairman of the Police Committee, Hamilton helped restore law and order and at the same time increased the efficiency of the Police Department. By 1920 the job was done, and Tobe Hamilton’s political ambitions were satisfied.

By 1924 Hamilton had reorganized the Alabama Pipe and Foundry Company, consolidating new acquisitions and older properties into the Alabama Pipe Company. This corporation, manufacturers of cast iron soil and pressure pipe, was the largest of its kind in the world. It consisted of twelve plants in Alabama and Tennessee and sales offices and warehouses in Chicago and New York. Later the company also acquired a plant in Kansas City, Missouri. Alabama Pipe manufactured cast iron water, gas, and sanitary pipes and fittings. The firm sold its products throughout the United States, as well as in Mexico and South and Central America.

Tobe Hamilton continued his civic work as he built his business. In 1928 he was elected President of the Anniston Chamber of Commerce and was the only individual to serve in that elected office for two consecutive terms. In 1917 the Chamber of Commerce had purchased land and presented it to the War Department as the site for Fort McClellan. As a result, the Chamber had incurred a heavy debt. Hamilton, in one of his first acts as President, created a five-year plan to amortize the debt. Another Hamilton achievement was the creation of the Inter-Club Council which was the predecessor of the Community Chest.

Hamilton was also active in church work. He was a member of the First Methodist Church where he served as a steward. For many years he was chairman of the finance committee. He was a member of the Country Club, of which he served as president, and was a member of the Rotary Club, among other organizations.

As Hamilton became financially able, he turned his profits into investments in Anniston. He invested in downtown Anniston business properties and was a stockholder in the Anniston Land Company. He also served as president or director of numerous Anniston companies: Anniston Ice and Coal Company, Polar Ice and Coal Company, City Bank and Trust Company, and Commercial National Bank. He was a director and principal stockholder of the Anniston

National Bank and the First National Bank of that city. His investments in the Anniston business community showed his deep faith in and commitment to his native city.

Hamilton was also involved in other enterprises in the state. He was a larger stockholder or director in Birmingham Smelting and Refining Company, Birmingham Fire Insurance Company, Alabama Ice Company, and the Allstate Life Insurance Company of Montgomery. Other businesses sought his business acumen.

Late in life, Hamilton suffered from heart ailments and on June 12, 1942, he died after a lengthy illness. The citizens of Anniston lost a civic-minded man committed to making his community an attractive and prosperous place.

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