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 and married Margaret Harvie Prince of Jonesboro.

Charles was a co-founder of the Alabama Fuel & Iron Company with his father and brother Henry T. DeBardeleben along with partner Jesse Overton. The company 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.

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. He employed armed guards to keep organizers away from his mines and buried explosive charges on the driveway to his house. In March 1937 he 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 is buried at Elmwood Cemetery.

References

• 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