| Henry F. DeBardeleben | |
| Birth Name: | Henry Fairchild DeBardeleben |
| Birth Date: | July 22, 1840 |
| Birth Place: | Autauga County, Alabama, US |
| Occupation: | Businessman |
| Party: | Democratic Party |
| Spouse: |
|
| Children: | 4 sons (including Henry T. DeBardeleben), 3 daughters |
Henry Fairchild DeBardeleben (July 22, 1840 - December 6, 1910) was an American coal magnate and town founder from Alabama.
Henry F. DeBardeleben was born on July 22, 1840, in Autauga County, Alabama.[1] [2] His father, Henry DeBardeleben, was a cotton plantation owner.[1] After his father died when he was ten years old, DeBardeleben moved to Montgomery, Alabama, with his mother, where he worked in a grocery store.[1] At the age of sixteen, he became Daniel Pratt's ward.[1] [2] [3]
During the American Civil War of 1861-1865, he served in the Prattville Dragoons of the Confederate States Army.[1] [2]
After the war, DeBardeleben was appointed by Pratt as the manager of the Helena Mines in Helena, Alabama.[1] In the 1870s, he helped rebuild the Oxmoor furnace.[3] When Pratt died in 1873, DeBardeleben inherited Red Mountain Iron and Coal Company.[2] A few years later, in 1878, he co-founded Pratt Coal and Coke Company with other investors.[2] He also founded the Alice Furnace Company.[2] Later, he co-founded the DeBardeleben Coal and Iron Company.[2] By 1887, the company owned 150,000 acres of land for coal and iron mining, and it was worth US$13 million.[1] It merged with the Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company in 1891, when DeBardeleben was appointed as its Vice Chairman.[1]
DeBardeleben served as the President of the Alabama Fuel and Iron Company.[1] With his sons, DeBardeleben established coal and iron mines in Margaret in St. Clair County and Acton in Shelby County.[1] He also established two mines in Acmar, St. Clair County.[4] He was the first person to produce pig iron in the Birmingham area.[1]
DeBardeleben also founded the Bessemer Land and Improvement Company, which developed the town of Bessemer, Alabama.[2] He was an investor in the Birmingham Rolling Mills and the Birmingham National Bank.[1]
DeBardeleben married Ellen Pratt, who was Daniel Pratt's only daughter, in 1863, in the midst of the Civil War.[1] After she died in 1893, he got married a second time to Katherine McCrossin in 1898.[1] DeBardeleben was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and a member of the Democratic Party.[1]
DeBardeleben died on December 6, 1910.[1] He was buried at the Oak Hill Cemetery in Birmingham, Alabama.[5] He was inducted into the Alabama Men's Hall of Fame in 1998.[2]