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^URI\L 
VVOMt l\V7N\^ 
VOL. XXVII. No. Ml. i 
WHOLE No. 1220. ) 
NEW YORK, AND ROCHESTER, N, Y,, JUNE II, 1873. 
I PRIDE Six CENTS l" 
1 #!3.5t> PER YEAR. 
[ IOntorod acoo riling to Act of Congress, in the year 1873, by D. D. T. MooEI, in the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. | 
Jiuliuitrial ,'pcit. 
COL. JAMES R. POWELL, 
Founder of the City of Birmingham, Ala. 
BY MARY DUFF-CORDON. 
In the whole expanse of the South, from 
the. blue waters of the PotorUae to the prairies 
of Texas, there is probably no mall so uni¬ 
versally known and distinguished through 
the wonderful success that has crowned his 
energy and labors as the subject of this 
sketch. In the material development of the 
exhaustless mineral resources of the South, 
especially of Alabama, he stands forth pre¬ 
eminently us its Napoleon, leading it on to 
greater victories. 
Born on the 7ch ol - December, 1814, in 
Brunswick county, Virginia, Col. Powell’s 
early years were passed in luxurious ease. 
At. the age of seventeen t he fortunes of his 
family became financially wrecked, and sud¬ 
denly he was called upon to support, aged 
parents and four sisters and a brother. Re¬ 
moving them to a small farm, with the aid 
of a faithful colored man, lie toiled by day 
and at. night taught his sisters, not being able 
to place them at school. After two or three 
years hail passed, with only a horse, fifty 
dollars in money and a genteel suitof clothes, 
lie sought to better his fortunes in the fertile 
region of Southern Alabama. On reaching 
his destination, lie found that the friends 
with whom he purposed staying had left for 
Mississippi. Lint his indomitable spirit, rallied 
friends around him, and in a short time he 
leased the leading hotel in Montgomery, 
whither he removed lvis family, and was 
thus enabled to complete the education of 
his sisters, 
la 1S7J7 he went to Washington City to bid 
for a mail contract. On the route the coach 
was robbed and his guarantees were lost; 
but his Congessional friends supplying the 
needed security, ho entered upon his career 
as a mail contractor, in which line he 
achieved such distinction that the outbreak 
of (he war found him controlling a large 
share in every stage line in Alabama and 
Mississippi, together with lines in Oeorgia, 
Florida, Louisiana and Texas, and eight 
hundred shares in t he overland mail route to 
.California ; this latter route he inaugurated 
in 1S5-, audit was subsequently established 
by Congress, The annual pay of the Cali¬ 
fornia route was one million, two hundred 
uud forty thousand dollars per annum. 
Among all his experienced partner-; he was 
the leading spirit. No contractor in all the 
vast mail service of the United States Gov¬ 
ernment stood so high in official circles in 
Washington City, and very few commanded 
the unlimited confidence reposed in him 
through such a long period. From a limited 
beginning, after twenty years he possessed a 
controlling interest in the passenger and mail 
transportation of the South and West, in¬ 
cluding the ownership of four thousand five 
hundred homes and mules—enough to mount 
a small army. 
Col. Powell’s name has no record upon 
the tented fields of the late war, but is sur¬ 
rounded with a halo of generous deeds, help¬ 
ful ministrations to the helpless and suffer- 
ing, and liberal outlays of means that will 
outlive the brightest laurels of the warrior. 
One act alone must be mentioned :—The lack 
of a supply of ice in the Southern hospitals 
during the summer, caused fearful suffering. 
Tn the winter of 18ij;i—t ho gathered all the 
force of men and teams in Montgomery, at 
his own expense, and secured a large quan¬ 
tity of ice ; for this ho refused the sum of 
forty thousand dollars, and presented it to 
the hospitals. How many a gasping, bleed¬ 
ing soldier in blue, far from the snows and 
firs of the North has blessed him as the cool¬ 
ing draught touched his burning lips — bum- 
COL, JAMES 
ing with the heat of battle and the fever of 
death. How many a son of the Southland, 
lulled into forgetfulness of the gash of saber 
and shot by the inspiration of that ice, has 
dreamed of fragrant orange and magnolia 
groves, fair blooming under the banners of 
Peace ! 
In 18G0 Col. Powell made the tour of 
Europe, and again revisited those classic 
shores of the old world in 1870. Upon his 
return, fully convinced of the necessities of 
the South for the development of that body 
of mineral treasure, whose proportions are so 
enormous that to give them would seem as 
wild as the stories of Aladdin’s Lump, he 
conceived the tremendous Undertaking which 
has made his name so famous. Li the midst 
of a valley fair as Wyoming ; at the base of 
an iron mountain containing inure ore than 
any similar deposit on the globe ; in the cen¬ 
ter of a coal region vast enough to supply the 
world for centuries ; at the intersection of 
A. & C. and L. N. and Great Southern Rail¬ 
road and of six other roads now building, 
where for years a cotton field had been culti¬ 
vated, he chose the location of his city, to 
which he gave the appropriate name of 
“ Binning lmrn.” 
In August, 1871, in company with his ac¬ 
complished engineer, Mr. Baker, he laid off 
the avenues and streets of a large city, 
arranging every detail with that good judg¬ 
ment and eye to the necessities of a thickly 
populated manufacturing mart which has 
FI- POWELL. 
since proved so wise. \t the present time it 
has one hundred and fifty stores, tile major 
portion of them being built of stone and 
brick, two and three stories high ; over six 
hundred residences ; six churches, five hotels; 
a first-class bank, whose enormous building 
of iron and stone, with Mansard roof, would 
attract attention iu New York, ludeed the 
style of architecture of all the buildings 
would do credit to a city ol’ fifty thousand 
population. A Union Passenger Depot, four¬ 
teen brick kilns; several grist and flouring 
mills ; railroad machine shops ; foundries ; 
sash, door and hlind factories ; a first-class 
car factory ; two fire companies; Bible socie¬ 
ties ; good schools, &e. On a hill some two 
miles distant from the city, of which it com¬ 
mand a fine view, are the water works, just 
completed at enormous cost. The reservoir 
can be Oiled with a million gallons of water 
every twenty-four hours ; pipes convey the 
water to all parts of the city. As the El 
Dorado of iron masters, the character of its 
population is the very best. Here one can 
meet, attending to their various interests, 
the Thomas’ of Lehigh, Pa.; Hillman of 
Tennessee ; Woodward of Wheeling, Va., 
the owner of the largest nail factory in the 
world, and many of the wealthiest iron¬ 
masters of England and Wales. Furnaces in 
every direction illuminate (lie night with 
their glare; and all this has been accom¬ 
plished under the leadership of Col. Powell 
in less Ilian two years. Universally beloved 
and respected by all the citizens of Birming¬ 
ham, he is not only its founder, but major. 
He has exercised sleepless vigilance in sur¬ 
rounding his city with the bulwarks of law 
and order, and has used herculean efforts for 
the establishment of free schools for the chil¬ 
dren of the worthy working classes, con¬ 
tributing, as usual, liberally towards them. 
Before the war Col. Powell was married 
to an accomplished Southern lady, the graces 
of whose mind and manners and intellectual 
gifts qualify her for the exalted position as 
helpmeet to such a hero. His only child, a 
daughter, beautiful as a dream of Southern 
roses and lilies, is pursuing her education iu 
the best schools of Italy. In personal ap¬ 
pearance ho is above the average bight, 
shitely, dignified, yet gentle in his manner, 
with a pleasing and easy flow of language. A 
temperate and energetic life has left few 
wrinkles on a noble face, over which a rosy 
flow of health lingers ; the clear eye sparkles 
with the enthusiasm of youth ; a mass of 
snowy hair crowns a brow which, like a 
tablet, recort s only generous deeds and 
great ones. His knowledge of men and the r 
adaptability to certain pursuits and places, 
amounts almost to ai. inspiration ; it is this 
gift, allied to a cairn and unfaltering judg¬ 
ment. a tireless will and industry, that is the 
secret of his success in life. His fortune is 
very large, and it speaks volumes in his 
praise that in this hour of his country’s need 
he rofuses ease and rest to accept labor and 
hardship. Some writer has truly said that 
“ it is an heroic aspiration which has .stimu¬ 
lated the really great men of all climes and 
ages to scorn delights and live laborious 
days.” His name is added to that long list 
which has made Virginia famous as the 
mother of great men ; his record is curved in 
imperishable letters on the roll of honor of 
Alabama’s best and noblest. Not by one 
sudden, dashing act, but slowly, steadily and 
brilliantly his star arose to shed the efful¬ 
gence of its splendid power on fair hills and 
valleys where erst the night of want and 
wrecked hopes were glooming ; his raonu- 
meut. rises in the blue dome of that iron 
mount, and wondrous young city at its base. 
No one, from North or South, meeting and 
mingling, hears his name but love anil revere 
it. No man's life means so touch of useful¬ 
ness and prosperity to Alabama ; no man’s 
name conveys so much of the genius of en¬ 
ergy ; no man’s life could be so illy spared in 
all the domain of this State, as that of James 
R. Powell. 
-♦ » » 
ZADOC PRATT. 
Tins eminent Farmer and Tanner prided 
himself on minding his own business. He 
did not spend his substance in rearing a pyra¬ 
mid on which to inscribe his material achieve¬ 
ments, bul dedicated a huge rook, flve hun¬ 
dred feet high, to the perpetuation of his 
fan a*. He cut a zigzag pal It upward along 
the face of the rock, rendering it a comfort¬ 
able pathway to tread, by carved chairs, set¬ 
tees and Me a tetc-H at intervals. Then his 
sculptor carved the patriarch's bust and that 
uf his son so as to face the village of Pratts- 
ville and the farm opposite. The inscriptions 
are : — ”23.000 pounus of butter, made from 
100 cows in 180*1, on the farm opposite.” 
”1,000,000 sides or sole leather tanned with 
hemlock bark in twenty years, by Z. Pratt.” 
