Coffin, Harry Welles And Family
Business and Personal Papers, 1878-1938

Harry Welles Coffin moved with his parents and sisters to Birmingham from New York City in 1885. He worked for Birmingham Axe and Toole Company (later Moore and Handley Hardware Company). In 1891 he married Minnie Everist Smith from Bayonne, New Jersey. The couple first lived on 20^th Street South in the Highland area, but in 1900 they built a house at 1834 14^th Avenue South. The new home was situated near the residences of Harry Coffin's parents and his two sisters and their husbands. An interest in mineral and coal fields led Coffin to employment as receiver for the Alabama Coal and Iron Company. In 1913 he became vice-president of The Alabama Company, which was formed in a merger between Alabama Coal and Iron and the Southern Iron and Steel Companies. Coffin served as chairman of the Third Liberty Loan Drive during World War I; he was appointed to the Chamber of Commerce Committee of 100; he served on the Board of Directors of the Birmingham Railway and of the Light and Power Company; and was a member of the American Mining Congress. He helped to form a local bicycling group and the Southern Club. Following the death of his only son from polio in 1919, Coffin sold The Alabama Company and retired from civic life. His two daughters, Florence (Mrs. Jennings F. Gillem) and Evelyn (Mrs. George T. Stafford, Jr.), lived in Birmingham for the rest of their lives. His parents, Benjamin Lent and Margaret Roome Coffin, lived out the rest of their lives in Birmingham, but were returned to New York to be buried in Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn. The rest of the family is buried in Elmwood Cemetery in Birmingham.

Source:

Cruikshank, George M. Birmingham and Its Environs. Vol II. Chicago: The Lewis Co, 1920. 231-232.

The greater part of the collection is personal in nature, but there are business materials spanning from 1912 through 1932. The personal papers begin in 1878 with Minnie Smith's teenage memorabilia, cover the Coffin family's relocation to Alabama, and conclude with some 1938 correspondence following Coffin's death in 1937. Among these papers are letters from relatives, invitations, memorabilia, day books, cards, and newspaper clippings. Among the business papers are materials from The Alabama Company, Cofford Realty, Chilton County Ore Company, Moore-Handley Hardware Company, Coffin-McClelland Investment Company, and Eureka Rolling Mills.

File level guide available in the Archives Department.

Alabama Company.
Coal -- Alabama.
Coffin, Harry Welles, 1863-1937.
Iron industry and trade -- Alabama.
Southern Iron & Steel Company -- Reorganization.
Steel industry and trade -- Alabama.

Collection Number: 125

Size: 3 linear feet (3 boxes)

Restrictions: Standard preservation and copyright restrictions.