Biography:

Attorney; businessman; president of Alabama Power Company and the Southern Company; civic leader. Born– Scottsboro, Ala., August 13, 1881. Parents– William Logan and Margaret (Ledbetter) Martin. Married– Mary Evelyn Tyson, June 4, 1919. Education– Starke University School, Montgomery; law student, University of Alabama, 1898-1900. Admitted to the Alabama Bar, 1901. Employed as an attorney and junior partner, Martin and Martin, 1901-1907; Assistant Attorney General, State of Alabama, 1903-1911; general counsel, Alabama Power Company, 1911-1964; vice president, 1915; president, 1920-1949; chairman of the board, 1949-64.  Founded Mississippi Power, Georgia Power, South Carolina Power, and Gulf States Power, in the holding company Southeastern (later Southern) Power.  Led in the building of dams in Alabama, beginning with the Lay Dam in 1913, bringing electricity to the state.  Helped to found The Southern Research Institute and the Alabama State Chamber of Commerce.  Led in the movement to found the Horseshoe Bend National Military Park. Member Newcomen Society; Rotary; served on boards of many corporations and institutions.  Elected to Officier d’Academie (France) and Order of the White Rose (Finland). Honors– South’s “Man of the Year,” 1946, Forbes Magazine’s fifty foremost business leaders; “Humanitarian of the Year,” 1964. Lake Martin on the Tallapoosa River is named in his honor.  Died December 8, 1964.

Source:

Owen’s Story of Alabama;  Marquis Who’s Who online

Publication(s):

Doctor William Crawford Gorgas of Alabama and the Panama Canal. New York; The Newcomen Society of England, American Branch, 1947.

French Military Adventurers in Alabama, 1818-1828. Princeton, N.J.; Princeton University Press, 1937.

Forty Years of Alabama Power Company, 1911-1951. New York; Newcomen Society in North America, 1952.

The Story of Electricity in Alabama Since the Turn of the Century, 1900-1952. Birmingham, Ala.; s.n., 1952.

The Story of Horseshoe Bend National Military Park. New York; Newcomen Society in North America, 1960.