Truman Heminway Aldrich
| Truman Heminway Aldrich | |
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| Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Alabama's 9th district |
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In office June 9, 1896 – March 4, 1897 |
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| Preceded by | Oscar W. Underwood |
| Succeeded by | Oscar W. Underwood |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
October 17, 1848 Palmyra, New York |
| Died | April 28, 1932 (aged 83) Birmingham, Alabama |
| Spouse(s) | Anna Morrison |
| Alma mater | Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute |
| Profession | civil engineer, paleontologist |
Truman Heminway Aldrich (October 17, 1848 – April 28, 1932) was a civil engineer, a mining company executive, and a paleontologist, and briefly served in the United States House of Representatives and as Postmaster of Birmingham. He is the sole Republican ever to represent Alabama's 9th congressional district, which existed from 1893 to 1963. His brother William F. Aldrich also represented Alabama in Congress, serving three partial terms during 1896–1901 from Alabama's 4th congressional district.
Aldrich was born in Palmyra and suffered from poor health as a young boy. He attended public schools and a military academy at Westchester, Pennsylvania before enrolling at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. He graduated in 1869 with a degree in mining and civil engineering and took a job with the railroads in New York and New Jersey. In 1870 he married Anna Morrison of Newark.
Aldrich's career was characterized by innovation and long-term vision. His strength was in finding new resources, developing them and then moving on to the next discovery. He was an honorable man in science as well as in business.
In 1872, Aldrich became a partner in a banking enterprise in Selma, Alabama. While in the region, he investigated the existing coal-mining operations at Montevallo and around the Cahaba Coal Field. The next year he secured a lease on the Montevallo coal mines and set to work extracting coal that summer. He purchased the mines outright in 1875 and named the surrounding settlement Aldrich, leasing the operation to his younger brother William while he prospected for new seams. He incorporated the Jefferson Coal Company in the town of Morris, from which he supplied fuel for the first successful coke-fired furnace in the Birmingham District, helping to establish the area as a center of iron and steel production.
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