Atlantic Steel Company (Atlanta, Ga.)

The Atlantic Steel Company was chartered in 1901 as the Atlanta Steel Hoop Company to manufacture steel ties for bailing cotton and hoops for binding barrels of rosin. Lacking a local source for the steel ties and binds used to prepare these products for shipment, eight Atlanta entrepreneurs formed the company. The founders were Dr. Abner W. Calhoun, George W. Connors, Charles E. Currier, John N. Goddard, John K. Ottley, J. Carroll Payne, Samuel T. Weyman, and Frank Hawkins. In 1906 the corporate name was changed to Atlanta Steel Company. The company was reorganized and incorporated as Atlantic Steel Company in 1915 and became Atlantic Steel Industries, Inc. in 1983.

Atlantic Steel was governed by a Board of Directors overseen originally by the company president. From 1901 to 1908 the company had three presidents in succession: Samuel T. Weyman, Charles E. Currier and David Woodward. George W. Connors was the first secretary-treasurer but functioned as the chief decision maker and administrator in conjunction with the Board until his resignation in 1907. Thomas K. Glenn followed Woodward as president in 1908. He reorganized the company and added the Executive Committee, which cooperated with the president in the general management of the operation. Glenn eventually obtained complete control over both the Executive Committee and the Board. Upon his resignation as president in 1922, the position of Chairman of the Board was created to allow Glenn to remain active in company management. The presidents after Glenn were Robert Gregg (1922-1933), Charles F. Stone (1933-1947), Robert S. Lynch (1947-1958), Howard B. Johnson (1956-1965), L. Glenn Dewberry, Jr. (1965-1978), William O. Riley (1978-?), and Jesse J. Webb (?-1998).

The Dixisteel trademark was created in 1922 by Charles F. Stone. By the 1950s Atlantic Steel's Dixisteel product line included cotton ties, nails, bale ties, woven wire fence, rivets, wrought washers, welding rods, metal forgings and stampings, and various types of wire products, mainly barbed and galvanized. The market for fabricated steel buildings had grown significantly by 1960 and a subsidiary, Dixisteel Buildings, Inc. (later Atlantic Building Systems, Inc.), was created to focus on this product line.

Sources: Kuniansky, Harry Richard. A Business History of Atlantic Steel Company, 1901-1968. New York: Arno Press, 1976; CorporationWiki <http://www.corporationwiki.com/Georgia/Atlanta/atlantic-steel-industries-inc-4593254.aspx > (15 January 2010); Atlanta Steel Co. History, Box 37, Folder 5, Atlantic Steel Company Records, MSS 929, Kenan Research Center, Atlanta History Center. "Dixisteel in the Making", Box 37, Folder 9, Atlantic Steel Company Records, MSS 929, Kenan Research Center, Atlanta History Center. Chronology, Box 37, Folder 5, Atlantic Steel Company Records, MSS 929, Kenan Research Center, Atlanta History Center. Jacobs, Hal. "Forging a Forgotten Century," Creative Loafing, December 12, 1998; Southern Currents <http://www.southerncurrents.com/misc/steel.htm> (19 October 2009).

From the description of Atlantic Steel Company records 1836-2000, undated 1901-1982. (Atlanta History Center). WorldCat record id: 43108161