Daniel Pratt was Alabama’s first major industrialist and founded the present-day city of Prattville as a self-sufficient manufacturing center. His factory complex, the Pratt Gin Company, became the world’s largest manufacturer of cotton gins. Pratt was instrumental in Alabama’s transformation from a predominantly rural economy to a more diverse industrial economy devoted to manufacturing and the production of coal, iron, and steel.

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Encyclopedia of Alabama

Photos courtesy of: Library of Congress, Alamy