| The Birmingham Ledger |
| Saturday Evening, July 11, 1903 |
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| Major Thomas Peters |
| A Man of the Early Days |
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| Major Thomas M. Owen requested
Major Thomas S. Tate to write a sketch of the late Major Thomas Peters
for the department of history. The following is the result. Few men
are so well qualified as Major Tate to write the article and thousands
of the friends of Major Peters will read it with pleasure, because of
its facts and its memories: |
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| Having been requested by the
department of archives and history of Alabama to prepare for
preservation therein short sketches of some of the men who were most
prominent in the early development of the mineral resources of this
district, and whose efforts in that line laid the foundation upon
which their successors built the Birmingham of today and placed this
section at the head of the list for the production of iron and coal of
any portion of our whole country, I shall devote the first of the
series to giving a short sketch of the life of Major Thomas Peters and
of his efforts in aid of this section at a time when it was
comparatively unknown. Major Peters was born in Wake county, North
Carolina, October 23, 1812; moved with his parents to Maury county,
Tennessee, when he was 15 years old, and a few years thereafter
settled in Henry county, West Tennessee, where he made his home for
many years. He moved to Memphis some years before the beginning of the
civil war in 1861. When was was declared he at once tendered his
services to the governor of Tennessee for any duty to which he might
be assigned. Governor Harris, who knew him well, at once appointed him
a quartermaster, with the rank of major, and assigned him to duty as
chief quartermaster of the Army of the Mississippi, then under the
commando f Lieut. Gen. Leonidas Polk, who resigned his bishopric in
the Episcopal church to give his services and later on his live to his
country. Major Peters brought to his new position a very large amount
of energy and sound business training. The task he had before him was
a herculean one. He had to equip a large army without any reserve
depots or factories to draw upon, and that, too, for a government
whose credit was never first class. How well he succeeded those of us
yet living who served in that army during the first year can and will
cheerfully testify. Major Peters had long been noticed for his honesty
and fair dealing, and every one who knew him felt sure that Governor
Harris had put the right man in the right place. One of his bondsmen,
a wealthy Irish banker in Memphis, said to him after signing the bond:
"Tom, you have a hard task ahead of you. No matter how
conscientiously you perform your duties you will be criticized. You
will have the handling of millions of money and property, and will
have many opportunities of speculation. If you should, however, not
take advantage of them and come out of the war poor, you will be
pointed out as a fool, who handled millions of government money and
did not have sense enough to fix himself. If you come out of it rich
they will say, "There goes a scoundrel, who fastened upon the
necessities of the ??lers and made a fortune." The war found him
with a large private fortune and left him with all that gone and a
very heavy debt hanging over him. He was ??? all over the western army
as one honest quartermaster. After the surrender he settled and lived
for some years in Selma, but in 1868 he came to this county, and at
once began his efforts to attract men from all over the country who
had capital to develop the minerals which nature had so lavishly
deposited in this section. He was comparatively without means, but had
a very extensive acquaintance among the prominent men of the south and
knew quite a number of the iron masters of the north. He spent his
entire time in this work, writing thousands of letters and making many
visits at his own expense to various sections and pointing out in his
most dramatic way the advantages of this section and showing what a
golden field it was going to prove to the early investor. It will be
remembered that this was a most inopportune time to try to induce
capital to invest here. Values of all kinds were falling. The state
government was in the hands of the carpetbaggers, who were increasing
the state debt at an alarming rate, and there was little or no
security for life of property, and last, but not least, there was no
railroad connection with the outer world, Calera being then the
nearest railroad station. No obstacle, however serious, could dampen
the enthusiastic ardor of Tom Peters and he kept up his good work
unceasingly. In the early part of 1869 his ??latent work began to bear
fruit. He persuaded his lifelong friends, Col. Sam Tate of Memphis, to
come over here and see for himself that what the potential he had been
writing him was the fact. Colonel Tate came and was so impressed with
what he saw and with the description given him by Major Peters of the
remainder of the country that he bought for himself and associates the
now famous Green Springs ore property, fronting three-quarters of a
mile on Red mountain; also the Ware Gap ore property, upon which is
now located all the upper Smith mines of the Tennessee Coal, Iron and
Railroad Company, as well as 6,000 acres of the Warrior coal field,
this latter property being located just north of the now famous
Dolomite coal mines of the Woodward Iron Company. These purchases may
truly said to have been the entering wedge in the heroic efforts of
Major Tom Peters in attracting outside capital to this section.
Ex-Governor R. M. Patton, who was at this time (1869) the president of
the North & South Alabama Railroad, and who had been associated
for many years with Colonel Tate in the management of the Memphis
& Charleston Railroad, had been trying for months to let the
contract to some one to build the South & North Alabama road from
Montgomery to Decatur, but had found no one who would undertake it.
Colonel Tate, knowing that his mineral properties here were valueless
without a railroad and seeing the great possibilities of the district,
went to see Governor Patton and closed a contract to build and equip
the road, which was practically done by him when he sold out his
contract to the Louisville & Nashville Railroad Company, and who
now own and operate it as a part of the great Louisville &
Nashville system. About this time the persistent and unceasing efforts
of Tom Peters brought the elder Woodward (father of the present owners
of the Woodward Iron Company) to this county, and he bought through
Tom Peters several lots of both iron and coal property, which were
afterward assembled and made the nucleus for the formation of the
Woodward Iron Company. Mr. Samuel Thomas, one of the prominent iron
masters of Pennsylvania, was also induced to pay this section a visit
through the efforts of Major Peters, and he was so impressed with the possibilities
of the district as a manufacturing point that he made heavy
investments in mineral lands. The first purchase he made, which was
made through Peters, was the old Grace place, in Grace's Gap. The
famous Spaulding ore mine of the Republic Company is on this place.
Continuing his good work, Major Peters succeeded in attracting the
attention of the Hillmans, for many years prominent iron men in
Tennessee and Kentucky, who came here, were shown around by Peters and
made extensive purchases, out of which, in connection with Colonel
Tate's properties, afterward became the Allen furnace, the first
furnace built in Birmingham. |
| Later on Capt. Mark L. Potter,
a large capitalist of Brooklyn, N. Y., having met Major Peters on one
of his many trips to the north and east in search of capital for this
section, and, being impressed by the major's graphic descriptions of
this section, came down and made many heavy purchases, some of which
have turned out to be the best properties in this district. H (Peters)
was largely instrumental in getting such men as Col. J. W. Sloss and
T. H. Aldrich, Sr., to investigate this section, which resulted in
both of them becoming citizens of Birmingham and very prominent
factors in the upbuilding of this section. In all these years Major
Peters had never faltered. His faith in the district was sublime and
his energy unlimited. He wrote letters everywhere, made3 trips
innumerable, and when capitalists, attracted by his letters or
personal descriptions came here to see for themselves he gave his time
and paid no small share of the expense required to show them
over the district. |
| It must be remembered, too,
that during the labor of this period he was practically without means
of his own and was burdened with a heavy debt, which he had
steadfastly refused to relieve himself from through the medium of the
bankrupt court, but kept on paying it in full, with interest, up to
the day of his death. The writer has known him to borrow the money
required to pay the expenses of a party he was showing around over the
country when he knew that he would not derive a cent of benefit
personally from the trip. In 1882 he made the crowning trade of his
life. Mr. H. F. DeBardeleben, Colonel Sloss and Mr. T. H. Aldrich had
organized the Pratt Coal and Coke Company, which fact settled forever
the question of our ability to make pig iron here cheaper than in any
part of the United States, by reason of the fact that the operations
of this company guaranteed a first class manufacturing fuel at a price
which was entirely satisfactory to the iron makers. Its success in a
financial way was so phenomenal that it had rapidly increased in
value. Mr. DeBardeleben had purchased all the stock and was sole owner
of the property. Major Peters went to DeBardeleben and asked him what
he would take for the property. As Mr. DeBardeleben did not want to
sell it he fixed the price at $1,000,000, which he thought Peters
would not entertain. Peters, very much to the surprise of DeBardeleben,
told him he would give him $10,000 for an option on it for six months.
This DeBardeleben accepted, and Peters sold it to Enoch Ensley and
associates of Memphis, thus consummating the first million dollar
trade ever made in this district. The price was considered out of all
reason, but it is said that Mr. DeBardoleben offered more than double
the selling price for the property within less than six months after
he had sold it, thus demonstrating the wisdom of Major Peters in
making the purchase. |
| He was for some years the land
agent of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad, and it was largely
through his efforts that the large German colony was induced to settle
in Cullman county, then a wilderness, but which, under the splendid
system of farming and fruit growing of our German cousins, has become
one of the most valuable portions of this matchless district. |
| In the fall of 1883 Major
Peters was sent to the Louisville Exposition to represent the
Birmingham district, and while there, devoting his whole time to the
matters entrusted to him, he was taken sick, and died on the 9th of
September, 1883, having lived a little more than the allotted time of
man -- three score and ten years. Major Peters was an ardent member of
the Methodist church and was foremost in building the first church of
Birmingham, and in all the walks of life showed himself to be a
conscientious Christian gentleman. He was twice married, but had but
one child, Miss Meta who became the wife of Hon. Robert H. Henley the
first mayor of Birmingham. Both daughter and son-in-law preceded him
to the grave, and the three are buried side by side in our beautiful
Oak Hill. He was ever charitable beyond his means, and his heart went
out in tender sympathy and in a more substantial way to the widow and
orphan. He raised and educated more orphans than any man I ever knew.
I remember meeting him on the train once, when he pointed out some
little child he had with him and told me that was the twenty-third he
had raised and was educating. He left a grandson, Tom Peters Henley,
who is living over in East Alabama, and a niece, Miss Mary Irion, who
many of our older citizens will remember as a sunny, fair haired and
complexioned little girl who lived with him at the old Grace homestead
in the gap, and who grew into beautiful girlhood under the shadow of
Red mountain and in her early womanhood became the wife of Hon. George
McElderry of Talladega, where she still lives, surrounded by her
interesting family of children. |
| In writing this tribute to
Major Tom Peters I have no desire or intention to detract from the
credit due any one man or set of men for what they have done toward
the upbuilding of this section, but to show that Major Peters did more
to attract attention to our resources when we were comparatively
unknown than any other man; that he labored for years at his own
expense, traveled thousands of miles and spent very much more money of
his own than any one else who did not have a much larger share of this
world's goods than he possessed, and that his efforts resulted in
bringing more capital into the district than any one else in his day.
The dead are so soon forgotten by all those except the immediate
family that in many instances we are prone to overlook and forget the
services, no matter how valuable, of those who have passed away, and
do homage to the hero of the hour. I sincerely hope this sketch may
serve to recall the subject of it to many of our older residents and
cause them to remember that Major Peters was one of the best and most
valued friends the Birmingham district ever had. Communities, like
republics, are said not to be ungrateful, but are willing to reward
true merit. If so, the planting by the citizens of this city
(Birmingham) of a monument fashioned out of the ores of Red mountain
(which he loved so well and worked so hard and intelligently to bring
to the notice of the commercial world) in memory of this grand old man
would be one of the best deserved tributes of respect and affection
that could be bestowed upon one of the most industrious citizens the
district has ever had. That in future years the citizen or visitor in delving
into the old documents in the department of archives and history at
Montgomery in quest of information of value in regard to the early
upbuilding of the mineral district may come across this hurriedly
written sketch, and from it learn something that may interest the
people then living is the sincere wish of the writer. |
| Respectfully, |
| Thos. S. Tate |
| Birmingham, Ala. July 6, 1903 |
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