Anniston AL – The Alabama Business Hall of Fame

Samuel Paul Noble

October 26th, 2021

Samuel Noble was the founder of Anniston, Alabama, which he envisioned as “the model city of the South.” He was an iron master and entrepreneur who helped Alabama’s recovery after the War Between the States by building this industrial base in Northeast Alabama.

The son of James and Jennifer (Ward) Noble, he was born in Cornwall, England, on November 22, 1834, but grew up in Reading, Pennsylvania, where his family had settled after emigrating in 1837. His father, an ironmaster, worked for a railroad until he could build a foundry.

Samuel Noble and his brother grew up in an atmosphere of furnace and forge. Young Samuel began learning his father’s craft at an early age by working in the foundry during school vacations. According to reports, he was always energetic. As a teenager, he was “full of both fun and work.” He belonged to the Reading Hose Fire Company, to a literary and debating group called the “Washington Club,” and a social dancing club. He also read law books and was interested in politics. During his years in Reading, Samuel Noble made many friends and contacts which proved useful to the family’s business in later years.

In 1855, when Samuel Noble was 21, the Nobles moved to Rome, Georgia, where they established James Noble and Sons. The Noble Ironworks soon became the largest of its kind south of the Tredegar Works in Richmond, Virginia. The enterprise included a foundry, rolling mill, nail factory, and stove and hollow wire factory, capable of making a variety of products

– from steam engines to boilers to iron bridges to mine equipment. One of the most famous products was the first railroad locomotive manufactured South of Richmond.

When the War Between the States began, the company obtained government contracts to produce iron products – such as cannons, cannon carriers, and caissons for the Confederate Army. The company experienced a setback when the uninsured carriage house and rifle factory in Rome were destroyed by fire, but about the same time obtained another government contract to build a new furnace. The result was Cornwall Furnace in Cherokee County, Alabama.

Samuel Noble took an active part in the Cornwall project, first as an overseer of the construction of the furnace and then as superintendent of its operation. He frequently made the 48-mile journey from the furnace site and back in one day – a strenuous trip in the 1860s.

Both the ironworks in Rome and the Cornwall Furnace were destroyed by Federal forces in 1864.

Samuel Noble had early emerged as the leader and spokesman of the family, perhaps because he was gifted with a hard, keen sense and practical energy. After the war, he secured capital from the North not only to rebuild the ironworks in Rome but also to buy extensive brownore properties and a large acreage of yellow pine for charcoal in Calhoun County, Alabama.

Samuel Noble traveled a great deal – raising capital or marketing the products of the Noble Iron Works. On a trip to Charleston, South Carolina, he met General Daniel Tyler, a capitalist from New York. Samuel Noble’s enthusiasm about the potential of the Alabama ore fields impressed General Tyler so much that he went with Noble to explore them. The result of this exploration was the formation of the Woodstock Iron Company in 1872, with General Tyler’s son Alfred as president and Samuel Noble as general manager.

By April 1873, the company had built and lit a forty-ton blast furnace (called No. 1 Furnace), and thus a new Alabama industry was born. The town of Anniston – named for General Tyler’s wife Annie – was established that same year.

No. 1 Furnace produced a high quality of carwheel iron which found a ready market in the North. The steady demand for this iron enabled the Woodstock Iron Company to survive the panic and depression of the 1870s. By 1879 the company was able to construct Furnace No. 2 and by 1880 to enlarge No. 1.

Anniston started in 1873 as a “company town” in a clearing in the woods – but not an ordinary one. Samuel Noble set out to make a model city. He laid out streets and parks. He provided lots for churches. He erected schools. The careful planning attracted wide attention.

In the 1880s Anniston grew by leaps and bounds, especially after 1883 when the Woodstock Company (which had retained possession of all property) formally opened the town to the public and encouraged new industries. Within fifteen years, Anniston had attracted over $11 million in capital investments.

Samuel Noble played a large part in the economic development of Anniston. He and his associates organized the Clifton Iron Company at Ironaton and built two 40-ton charcoal furnaces and also enlarged an older one called Jenifer. He acquired coal companies and constructed two 200-ton coke furnaces to make pig iron for the manufacture of cast iron pipe – a pioneer enterprise embodied in the Anniston Pipe Works Company organized in 1887. He was also instrumental in the construction of a cotton mill with 12,000 spindles.

Besides providing employment through industrial expansion, Samuel Noble enhanced community life by opening the Anniston Inn, which became a gathering place for both residents and visitors. He also launched the town’s first newspaper, The Hot Blast. He and General Tyler built the Grace Episcopal Church in Anniston.

Samuel Noble was known in the city he founded as a man who gave generously to every cause, race, and sect, and as one who earned the loyalty of his friends and employees. He was once described as a man who “put as much labor on his mental and physical forces in one hour as most men do in a year.”

Samuel Noble died suddenly on August 14, 1888, at age 53. This industrial pioneer had served Alabama well. He had established the foundations of a modern city and an industrial base in Northeast Alabama during the most difficult economic periods in the state’s history.

Source of biographical information: Grace Hooten Gates, The Model City of the New South: Anniston, Alabama, 1872 – 1900, Huntsville, AL: The Strode Publishers, Inc., 1978.

Thomas E. Kilby

September 22nd, 2021

Thomas Erby Kilby served as Governor of Alabama from 1919-1923, the years after World War I when society was being catapulted into the modern age. He brought to the governorship a record of business expertise and successful administrative experience, as well as a reputation as a man more interested in commercial, educational, and agricultural progress than in politics.

Thomas Erby Kilby was born in Lebanon (Wilson County), Tennessee on July 9, 1865. The son of Peyton B. and Sara Ann (Marchant) Kilby, he was educated in the public schools of Atlanta, Georgia.

In 1887, he moved to Anniston, Alabama, as station agent for the Georgia and Pacific Railroad. He continued in that position until 1889 when he saw an opportunity to establish a railway supply business with Horry Clark. Kilby rapidly demonstrated his entrepreneurial ability and soon this partnership styled Clark and Kilby, grew, and was incorporated in 1892 as Smith and Kilby, a manufacturer of railway supplies.

Under Kilby’s leadership over the next three decades, this business expanded and became a rebuilder of steam locomotives, manufacturer of railway cars, and producer of basic steel. During this expansion, the company established a steel foundry, a rolling mill, and a large forge shop. The company went through a series of name changes becoming Kilby Locomotive and Machine Works in 1903, later Kilby Car and Foundry Company, and finally Kilby Steel Company in 1938.

Kilby established a subsidiary company in 1903, Alabama Frog and Switch Company, a manufacturer of railroad switches. He served as president until this business was moved to Birmingham in the 1920s becoming Kilby Frog and Switch and later Wier Kilby Company.

Foreseeing a bright future for the cast iron pipe industry, Kilby organized the Alabama Pipe and Foundry Company. Within a decade, Anniston became the center of the soil pipe industry. In 1921, he formulated plans for the consolidation of some dozen independent plants into the Alabama Pipe Company, which became the world’s largest cast iron soil pipe manufacturer. He served as Board Chairman until his death.

Due to his business acumen, Kilby was named a Director of the City National Bank of Anniston. In 1902, he became president. When this bank merged with the Anniston National Bank to become Anniston City National Bank, he served as president until 1919, when he resigned to become Governor. He was subsequently elected chairman of the board of directors of the bank from 1923-1930.

According to reports, Thomas Kilby had given no thought to entering the political arena until 1889 when his friends persuaded him to run for the City Council. The city needed a good businessman on the council to rescue the city from potential bankruptcy. He ran, was elected, and as Finance Chairman managed to get the city finances in order during his two-year tenure.

In 1900, he was appointed to a two-year term on the Anniston City School Board. In 1905, he was persuaded to run for and was elected to the mayorship of the city. As mayor of Anniston for two successive terms, he put into operation policies of economy, law enforcement, internal improvements, and social reform which later became state policies during his term as governor.

After the successful completion of his mayorship, he traveled to Europe to study state and municipal governments of the old world. This instructive study further increased his growing interest in state government.

Thus, in 1911, Kilby ran and was elected as a state senator from Calhoun County. In 1914, he ran a successful campaign for the lieutenant governorship, and in 1918 he launched a campaign for the governorship.

During his gubernatorial campaign, Kilby allowed no one to contribute to his campaign fund and he made no commitments for any appointments, pardons, paroles, or other favors.

Kilby’s platform was simple but purposeful. As usual, he placed first importance on the introduction of business methods into the affairs of the state. He also pledged support for policies and laws to improve the educational, agricultural, commercial, and social environment in the state.

Thomas Kilby was inaugurated governor of Alabama on January 20, 1919. Then began an administration marked by achievement. With the support of the Legislature, he established the Budget Commission and revenue measures which equalized the tax burden. He improved the public highways and fostered the development of the port of Mobile. He enforced the laws of the state, especially those pertaining to prohibition, and he curtailed the pardoning power.

He initiated social legislation which has had far-ranging effects. For example, he was instrumental in improving the care of and facilities for prisoners.

Kilby Prison was one result of his efforts and at the time of its construction was considered one of the most modern in the U.S. He increased appropriations for Bryce Hospital and other institutions for the mentally ill. He sponsored legislation to provide for mentally deficient children, resulting in what is called Partlow School today. He can also be credited with the establishment of the Child Welfare Department and the Public Health Department; passage of a fair Workman’s Compensation Act; assistance to agriculture; and support of veterans.

At the end of his term, said one newspaper editor, this ‘business governor” had lifted the economy of Alabama from a “hand-to-mouth” economy to an economy that looked at least twenty-five years ahead. Another newspaper stated that Kilby’s administration had attained the status of the unique with its vast gains for education, the eleemosynary institutions, public health, and road and water transportation.

Thomas Erby Kilby, 37th Governor of the State of Alabama, died October 22, 1943, at his home in Anniston. He was survived by Mrs. Mary Elizabeth (Clark) Kilby, his wife of 49 years.

At the time of his death, Alabama leaders and newspapers again proclaimed his administration one of the finest Alabama had ever experienced. In recognition of this fact, in 1946, the state of Alabama invited the Kilby family to place a memorial plaque in the department of Archives and History in Montgomery-a building which was the culmination of the late Governor’s dedication of his money, time, and energies to a useful and enduring memorial to Alabama’s war dead. At a ceremony on October 25, 1946, Mrs. Kilby presented the plaque on behalf of the family.

Thus, the State of Alabama honors Governor Thomas Erby Kilby and assures him a permanent and illustrious place in its history.

Arthur Henry Lee

September 20th, 2021

Arthur H. Lee and his twin brother Alfred, Anniston – born sons of John B. and Mary N. (Licksold) Lee, began operation of Lee Brothers Foundry in January 1919 with $500 of borrowed money and one helper. When they sold the corporation to Phelps Dodge in 1963 for five and a quarter-million dollars, they had 750 employees, distribution warehouses in ten states, and annual sales of over ten million dollars.

The story of the growth and development of the company reflects the character of Arthur H. Lee.

Mr. Lee and his brother learned early to respect hard work and the people who worked for them. Arthur did the molding, core making, and pouring off during the day, and the office work at night; Alfred operated the furnace, melted brass, and made patterns. They did jobbing work or rough castings for local customers. Since their ambition was to make the best castings possible and to have satisfied customers, Arthur Lee read extensively about the composition of brass and learned how different percentages of the components of the alloy could be used for different end products.

In these early days, the brothers put as much money as possible back into the business to improve it. They increased the floor space in the original building from 1200 to 3600 square feet. About 1923, when they realized that only a finished, not a rough, product was necessary for the company’s continued success, the brothers (unable to afford a $7500 finishing machine that would turn out 400 three-inch brass plugs a day) made a finishing machine from two old lathes. With this machine, total cost about $150, they began finishing about 1,100 brass plugs a day for the soil pipe shops in Anniston. They added two more heads later and had a machine (total cost now $450) that would finish more than 3,500 plugs per day-they learned they could probably make better machines than they could buy.

In the late twenties and early thirties, Arthur and Alfred Lee learned other valuable lessons. In 1927, the brothers agreed to pay installments of $300 per month for $7500 worth of patterns and machines for manufacturing brass fittings. They learned that they had not thought far enough ahead to the set-up and marketing costs before starting to manufacture fittings. They opened their first warehouse in New York City in 1932, but when the banks closed in 1933, they were practically bankrupt and owed the bank about $15,000. When the banks reopened, they tried to reduce their notes as quickly as possible. In doing so in a surprisingly short time, they were able to discount their bills for the first time.

In 1947, the Lee Brothers, then employing 250 people, formed Lee Brothers Foundry Company, Inc., valued at $350,000. By plowing back or through investing all the earnings and profits, they had expanded the plant to 63,000 square feet and used all land space available in the original location.

In June 1950, they bought 102 acres of land across the mountain from Anniston and started plans for a new plant of steel buildings to provide 140,000 square feet of floor space. Their employees designed and built the new plant, including all roads. On a Thursday in August 1951, the 360 employees closed down the old plant at 3:30 p.m. They dismantled, steam cleaned, and painted all equipment (including a ninety-ton sand storage hopper and elevator) and moved it six miles to the new buildings where they installed it. By the following Monday, the new plant opened at fifty percent production on its first day of operation. In a religious ceremony, the new plant was dedicated to the good of the employees and the glory of God.

Always concerned about his employees, Arthur Lee saw a need for them to be able to save money on a timely basis and secure loans at reasonable interest rates. In 1953, he started the Brassies Credit Union which today has 1200 members and assets of over $2.3 million.

In the 1950s, Lee Brothers Company, Inc. continued to grow and expand. The brothers began selling to contract customers and using leased trucks to deliver their products and return with raw materials. They built more warehouses for the distribution of their goods. By 1963, when the corporation was sold-warehouses were operating in Atlanta, Boston, Cincinnati, Dallas, Denver, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Moline, New York City, Philadelphia, and San Francisco.

As Lee Brothers Foundry prospered, so did others, for Arthur Lee was a man who believed in sharing. With the support of Edna Stoesser, to whom he was married from 1920 until her death in 1951, and of Cecile Thompson, to whom he was married from 1973 until his death, through the years, he was an active participant in community and church affairs.

He served a two-year term as President of the Anniston Chamber of Commerce, a one-year term on the City Council. He was a founder, director, and trustee of the Anniston’s Boy’s Club and a founder of The Anniston Rescue Squad. He was a member of the Anniston Airport Board for several years and a member of the Anniston Rotary Club for twenty-eight years.

Mr. Lee served for fifty years on the Administrative Board, Finance Committee, and Music Committee for the First United Methodist Church of Anniston. He was a talented vocalist who sang in the choir and was a soloist many times during these years.

In 1966, Mr. Lee purchased the former Camp Zinn for Boy Scouts, developed it into a church camping facility, and gave it, along with certain funds for its operation, to the First United Methodist Church of Anniston for non-denominational use. The camp, since named Camp Lee in his honor, was also willed other funds and Mr. Lee’s adjoining farm property and home.

Arthur Lee’s contributions to his community and church were recognized by numerous awards. In 1963, he received the “Aristocrat Award” for his many years of service to the city’s airways development. In 1969, he was named “Anniston’s Man of the Year.” In 1970, he was chosen for membership in the United Methodist Church Hall of Fame in Philanthropy, an award given annually to persons who have given outstanding contributions of service or funds to health and welfare agencies related to the church. In 1971, he was given the Religious Award by the Anniston Kiwanis Club for service rendered to God, Community, and Country. In 1974, he was named Honorary Life Member of the Music Committee of his church for his loyal contributions of time, talent, and means to the music ministry.

An excerpt from an editorial in The Anniston Star at the time of Arthur Henry Lee’s death perhaps summarizes best his meaningful life: “Lee Brothers [Foundry] prospered and grew and so did others. Arthur Lee shared the work . . . [but] the public knows only partly [how] he shared the benefits. When it came to public need, Mr. Lee was not only among the first to subscribe, but he also could-and did – twist arms effectively for the support he felt was essential. Not so well known, however, was his private generosity, the uncounted times he quietly extended help for young people who wanted to go to school, for someone desperate for a friendly hand in time of need. For all the powers he might have wielded, all the honors that came his way, he walked quietly among us, a good and selfless man whose monuments stand all around us.”

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.

Harry Mell Ayers

September 9th, 2021

As an editor and publisher, Harry Mell Ayers earned the respect of his employees, colleagues, and community.

Ayers began his career at Alabama State Teachers College (Jacksonville State University), editing the school’s newspaper. Ayers worked for several papers in Anniston before he bought the Hot Blast and the Evening Star and merged the papers, creating the Anniston Star. Ayers left the paper and served in the Army as a Captain in World War I. After the war, he was commissioned a Lieutenant Colonel in the Alabama National Guard. After the war, he resumed his post of editor and publisher of the Anniston Star and married Edel Yetterboe. Being a journalist, Ayers was drawn to politics, and his first introduction to politics came as the manager of Thomas E. Kilby’s successful gubernatorial campaign. A decade later, Ayers served as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention. During World War II, Ayers served as chairman of the Military Affairs Committee of the Anniston Chamber of Commerce where he met many high-ranking army officers. Ayers was instrumental in the re-opening of Fort McClellan after it was de-activated, a service for which he received the Army’s Outstanding Civilian Service Medal, the second-highest decoration awarded to civilians. As a civic leader, Ayers was involved in the Alabama State Chamber of Commerce and Rotary Club; a supporter of Jacksonville State University; Bible class teacher at Parker Memorial Baptist Church; and president of the Alabama Press Association. In 1969, for his service to journalism, he was posthumously inducted into the Alabama Newspaper Hall of Honor.

Samuel Noble

September 9th, 2021

Samuel Noble was the founder of Anniston, Alabama, which he envisioned as “the model city of the South.”

He was an iron master and entrepreneur who helped Alabama’s recovery after the War Between the States by building this industrial base in Northeast Alabama.