Woodward, Joseph H., 1912-1965

Stimpson Harvey (S.H.) Woodward, a native of Massachusetts, moved from Pittsburgh to Wheeling, West Virginia in 1852. With twenty associates, he founded Bailey, Woodward and Company, and served as president. Over the next several years, he bought out his partners, becoming sole owner of the company. In addition, he founded LaBelle Iron Works at Wheeling, West Virginia. In 1869, he visited Alabama, investigating reports by Army veterans of rich coal and iron deposits. Within a month he had purchased 550 acres of land on Red Mountain. Later that same year, he purchased 2000 acres near Woodstock, Alabama. These properties were to become the nucleus of the Woodward Iron Company.

In 1836, he married Margaret Glass, with whom he had four sons and four daughters. In the 1870s, two of these sons, Joseph H. Woodward (J.H.) and William H. Woodward (W.H.), investigated the possibility of using the coking process at the Alabama lands. Agreeing the process would be possible, the two sons founded the Woodward Iron Company following their father's death in 1881. W.H. served as president, while J.H. served as secretary-treasurer. Construction began almost immediately on the site's first blast furnace, 12 miles southeast of Birmingham, and was completed in 1883. The site was ideal. Placed between coal and iron mines, the plant was able to produce pig iron more cheaply and efficiently than competitors because of this close proximity to raw materials. In 1886, J.H. Woodward became the president of Woodward Iron Company.

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