Charles DeBardeleben
Charles Fairchild DeBardeleben (born July 4, 1876 in Prattville, Autauga County; died August 31, 1941 in Birmingham) was president of the Alabama Fuel & Iron Company.
DeBardeleben was the fourth of six children born to Henry and Ellen Pratt DeBardeleben. He graduated from Agricultural and Mechanical College of Alabama in Auburn in 1893 and began his career in the engineering department of the Tennessee Coal, Iron & Railroad Co., then headed by Erskine Ramsay. He left TCI to join the Bessemer Coal, Iron & Land Company and was soon supervising its coal mining activities. He invested in the Little Cahaba Coal Company and oversaw the opening of mines in Piper. He married Margaret Harvie Prince of Jonesboro on April 15, 1896.
In 1905 Charles was a co-founder of the Alabama Fuel & Iron Company (AFICO) with his father and brother Henry T. DeBardeleben along with partner Jesse Overton. Charles initially served as vice-president and general manager before taking over as Henry focused on his DeBardeleben Coal Company. AFICO operated coal mines in the Acton Basin on the L & N Railroad in present-day Hoover, as well as at Acmar, Margaret (named for Charles' wife), and Overton, all on the Central of Georgia Railway. The company also mined iron ore at Russellville in Franklin County.
Charles and Margaret built a large house for $76,000 in the Milner Heights subdivision of Redmont in 1923. In 1925 the company moved its offices to the newly-completed Pioneer Building on 20th Street South. He served as president of the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce in 1917 and as president of the Country Club of Birmingham the following year.
DeBardeleben was an outspoken and active opponent of unionization. In order to keep his miners beholden to him, he built isolated company-run camps with company-owned housing, company-sponsored churches and schools, and company stores that sold merchandise in exchange for company scrip. The company's towns and social programs were strictly segregated by race. He raised wages and shortened hours to head off inducement to unionization in 1933. He also employed armed guards to keep organizers away from his mines and buried explosive charges on road approaching Overton. In October 1935 his guards ambushed labor demonstrators at Acmar, killing one and wounding six others. In March 1937 DeBardeleben led a revival-style mass meeting with 6,500 workers which closed with a rousing chorus of "Where He Leads Me I Will Follow". Some of the company's guards grabbed a teenaged Troy Ingram, who was attempting to interview miners' families in Overton for the United Mine Workers, beat him and drove him out of town.
During the Great Depression, DeBardeleben encouraged his employees to raise grain and vegetable crops and livestock as a way of staying off of government relief rolls. The company sponsored exhibits of their agricultural accomplishments at the Alabama State Fair.
DeBardeleben died in 1941 and was buried at Elmwood Cemetery on Labor Day. He was survived by his wife and three children; Charles II, Prince, and Walker.
References
- Cruikshank, George H. (1920) History of Birmingham and Its Environs: A Narrative Account of Their Historical Progress, Their People, and Their Principal Interests 2 volumes. Chicago, Illinois: Lewis Publishing Company. - via Birmingham Public Library Digital Collections
- Woodrum, Robert H. (2007) 'Everybody Was Black Down There' : Race and Industrial Change in the Alabama Coalfields. Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press ISBN 9780820328799
- Ruisi, Anne (July 11, 2022) "Original Charm: Historic Redmont Home Crowns Red Mountain." Over the Mountain Journal
External links
- Charles Fairchild DeBardeleben at Findagrave.com