- Ernest Woodruff
Ernest Woodruff (
May 23 ,1863 -June 5 ,1944 ) [ [http://www.geocities.com/heartland/forest/3255/pafg20.htm#23951 Decendants of John Barton] ;retrieved February 2007] was an important businessman in theU.S. city ofAtlanta .With his brother-in-law,
Joel Hurt he founded theAtlanta and Edgewood Street Railroad which ran its first electric trolleys onApril 22 ,1889 and Woodruff followed Hurt as president of the Trust Company in 1904 a post he held for 18 years before becoming its Chairman of the Board.Woodruff's greatest skill was in re-organizing existing companies to improve value by increased scale: in 1903 he combined three small ice and coal companies into the
Atlanta Ice and Coal Company then in 1910 with the help of the Trust Company he organized those types of companies from Virginia and throughout the Carolinas into theAtlantic Ice and Coal . None of these companies were able to make much money on their own with high costs of home and office deliveries but combined made handsome returns toshareholders .Then he restructured the
Atlantic Steel (current site ofAtlantic Station ) factory and installedThomas Glenn to get it out of debt.This set the table for the biggest move of Woodruff's career: the take over of the
Coca-Cola Company which he negotiated withAsa Candler in 1919.His son,Robert W. Woodruff would run that company for years leaving Candler's sonHoward Candler rather out of the picture.Woodruff was born in
Columbus, Georgia . After relocating to Atlanta, he made his home in Hurt'sInman Park suburb.References
###@@@KEY@@@###succession box|title=President of Trust Company of Georgia
before=Joel Hurt |after=Tom Glenn | years=1904 – 1922
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