Alfred Huger Moses (1840–1918) was an American banker and investor who founded the city of

Sheffield, Alabama Sheffield is a city in Colbert County, Alabama, United States, and is included in the Florence-Muscle Shoals Metropolitan Area. The population was 9,403 at the 2020 census. and was estimated to be 9,307 in 2023. Sheffield is the birthplace o ...

Biography

Alfred Huger Moses was born to a

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

family in 1840 in Charleston,

South Carolina South Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders North Carolina to the north and northeast, the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, and Georgia (U.S. state), Georg ...

, the oldest son of Adeline and Levy Moses. In 1860, he graduated from the

College of Charleston The College of Charleston (CofC or Charleston) is a public university in Charleston, South Carolina, United States. Founded in 1770 and chartered in 1785, it is the oldest university in South Carolina, the 13th-oldest institution of higher lea ...

and moved to

Montgomery, Alabama Montgomery is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Alabama. Named for Continental Army major general Richard Montgomery, it stands beside the Alabama River on the Gulf Coastal Plain. The population was 2 ...

where he apprenticed in a local law office. During the

Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

, he served as the clerk of the Confederate District Court and enrolled in the civil defense volunteer militia company, '' Alabama Rebels.'' After the war, his brothers, Mordecai and Henry, also moved to Montgomery and together, they invested in the then depressed real estate market via their investment firm eventually building Montgomery's first skyscraper, the six-story Moses Building. In 1875, his brother Moredcai L. Moses, was elected as the first Jewish mayor of Montgomery and later as president of the ''Montgomery Gas and Electric Light Company''. In 1880, coal and iron ore were found in the northern reaches of Alabama and Moses and his brothers invested in some mines near

Florence, Alabama Florence is a city in, and the county seat of, Lauderdale County, Alabama, Lauderdale County, Alabama, United States, in the state's northwestern corner, and had a population of 40,184 in the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Florence is l ...

and purchased 30,000 acres across the

Tennessee River The Tennessee River is a long river located in the Southern United States, southeastern United States in the Tennessee Valley. Flowing through the states of Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, and Kentucky, it begins at the confluence of Fren ...

and incorporated a new city named

after the steel-producing city

Sheffield, England Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, situated south of Leeds and east of Manchester. The city is the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and some of its southe ...

. Moses served as the town's first mayor. He secured investors to fund the building of a

blast furnace A blast furnace is a type of metallurgical furnace used for smelting to produce industrial metals, generally pig iron, but also others such as lead or copper. ''Blast'' refers to the combustion air being supplied above atmospheric pressure. In a ...

as well as railroad links between

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

, Mobile, and

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

and sold stock to his investors via his ''Sheffield Land, Iron and Coal Company''. By 1886, the first blast furnace was operating and in 1887, the ''Alabama and Tennessee Iron and Coal Company'' choose Sheffield as its headquarters and built three new blast furnaces. In 1891, the venture and the local Moses-founded bank failed after the price of

pig iron Pig iron, also known as crude iron, is an intermediate good used by the iron industry in the production of steel. It is developed by smelting iron ore in a blast furnace. Pig iron has a high carbon content, typically 3.8–4.7%, along with si ...

plummeted and the local supply of iron was found to be inflated causing the railroads to pull out from completing the links from Sheffield to the rail network. After the

Panic of 1893 The Panic of 1893 was an economic depression in the United States. It began in February 1893 and officially ended eight months later. The Panic of 1896 followed. It was the most serious economic depression in history until the Great Depression of ...

, the blast furnaces were closed, the city depopulated, and the Moses family moved to

Saint Louis, Missouri St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a populatio ...

. In 1901, Sheffield's blast furnaces were restarted but closed in 1907;

US Steel The United States Steel Corporation is an American steel company based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It maintains production facilities at several additional locations in the U.S. and Central Europe. The company produces and sells steel products, ...

then purchased the mills but permanently closed them just prior to the

Great Depression of 1929 Great may refer to: Descriptions or measurements * Great, a relative measurement in physical space, see Size * Greatness, being divine, majestic, superior, majestic, or transcendent People * List of people known as "the Great" * Artel Great (bo ...

Personal life

His daughter, Adeline Moses, married German-born Carl M. Loeb, then working for the local office of German metal trader

Metallgesellschaft AG Metallgesellschaft AG was formerly one of Germany's largest industrial conglomerates based in Frankfurt. It had over 20,000 employees and revenues in excess of 10 billion US dollars. It had over 250 subsidiaries specializing in mining, specialty c ...

and would later serve as the president of the

American Metal Company American Metal Company was an American nonferrous metal trading and production company. History The origin of the American Metal Company (AMCO) begins with Metallgesellschaft AG of Germany, one of whose founders, Wilhelm Ralph Merton, tasked one ...

and founder of the investment firm Carl M. Loeb & Co. Moses was buried in

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Moses, Alfred Huger 1840 births 1918 deaths American Jews American businesspeople in metals People from Charleston, South Carolina People from Montgomery, Alabama People from Sheffield, Alabama Confederate Jews