Samuel Tate

Samuel M. Tate was born in Middle Tennessee in 1817. While a child he moved to Fayette County, Tennessee, where he received his education. In about 1840 he became a merchant in Somerville, Tennessee. When the Memphis and Charleston Railroad was chartered in 1846, he became its secretary-treasurer and was later its president. During the Civil War, Col. Sam Tate was involved with railroad business in Alabama having much correspondence sent to him at Demopolis. In 1868 his construction company contracted with the South and North Alabama Railroad to build a rail line from Montgomery to Decatur. This was almost completed in 1871 when the company sold its contract to the Louisville and Nashville Railroad. Sam Tate was also listed among the early ironmakers of Birmingham being one of the people who organized the Birmingham Coal and Iron Company in 1880. He lived in several places in his later life including Florida and the Little Rock, Arkansas area. He died in Memphis on July 26, 1892. He was married and had at least two sons, Samuel Tate, Jr., at whose home he died, and Thomas Tate, who served briefly as mayor of Birmingham during 1872.