Henry Fairchild DeBardeleben was known as a dynamic industrial pioneer in Alabama. At the age of 16, he became the ward of Daniel Pratt, Alabama’s first great industrial magnate, who would later become his father-in-law. DeBardeleben became a “boss” of the teamsters, a lumberyard foreman and later a superintendent of a cotton gin. In 1863, after his time in the Confederate Army, he married Ellen Pratt. DeBardeleben continued working for his father-in-law. In 1872, Daniel Pratt bought controlling interest in the Red Mountain Iron and Coal Company in Birmingham and made DeBardeleben manager of the reconstruction of the Oxmoor furnace. In 1878, DeBardeleben, along with two partners, reorganized an exisiting company and renamed it Pratt Coal and Coke Company of which DeBardeleben was the president. In 1882, along with W. T. Underwood, DeBardeleben built Mary Pratt Furnace (named after his second daughter). He also acquired mineral rights for a tract of land on Red Mountain. His interests led to the founding of Bessemer which was near the great Red Mountain iron seam. In DeBardeleben’s lifetime, he aided in the development of industrial Birmingham; was the first to succeed in making pig iron cheaper than anywhere else; built the first coal road in Alabama; aided in exploring and developing the Montevallo coal fields; attracted enterprise to Birmingham; and was instrumental in the construction of the first rolling mill and furnaces.

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