Ernest Woodruff (May 23, 1863 – June 5, 1944) was a businessman in the U.S. city of

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

Biography

Woodruff was born in

Columbus, Georgia Columbus is a consolidated city-county located on the west-central border of the U.S. state of Georgia. Columbus lies on the Chattahoochee River directly across from Phenix City, Alabama. It is the county seat of Muscogee County, with which it ...

. After relocating to Atlanta, he made his home in the

Inman Park Inman Park is an intown neighborhood on the east side of Atlanta, Georgia, and its first planned suburb. It was named for Samuel M. Inman. History Today's neighborhood of Inman Park includes areas that were originally designated * Inman Park p ...

suburb, developed by his brother-in-law Joel Hurt.

Family

On April 22, 1885, Woodruff married Emily Caroline Winship, child of foundry magnate Robert Winship.

Career

With his brother-in-law Joel Hurt, Woodruff founded the

Atlanta and Edgewood Street Railroad The Atlanta & Edgewood Street Railroad Company of Atlanta, Georgia was organized in 1886 by Joel Hurt, C. W. Hubner, H. E. W. Palmer, W. P. Inman, Peter Lynch, R. C. Mitchell, Asa Griggs Candler, J. P. McDonald, J. G. Reynolds, A. F. Morela ...

, which ran its first electric trolleys on April 22, 1889. Woodruff followed Hurt as president of the

Trust Company A trust company is a corporation that acts as a fiduciary, trustee or agent of trusts and agencies. A professional trust company may be independently owned or owned by, for example, a bank or a law firm, and which specializes in being a trust ...

in 1904; he held this post for 18 years before becoming

chairman of the board The chairperson, also chairman, chairwoman or chair, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by members of the grou ...

. 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, which went on to become

Americold Americold Realty Trust, Inc. is an American temperature-controlled warehousing and transportation company based in Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County ...

. In 1910, with the help of the Trust Company, he organized ice and coal companies from Virginia and throughout the Carolinas into Atlantic Ice and Coal. With high costs of home and office deliveries, none of these companies were able to make much money on their own, but combined they made handsome returns to

shareholders A shareholder (in the United States often referred to as stockholder) of a corporation is an individual or legal entity (such as another corporation, a body politic, a trust or partnership) that is registered by the corporation as the legal owner ...

. Woodruff then restructured the

Atlantic Steel The Atlantic Steel Company was a steel company in Atlanta, Georgia with a large steel mill on the site of today's Atlantic Station multi-use complex. Atlantic Steel's history dated back to 1901 when it was founded as the Atlanta Hoop Compan ...

factory (current site of

Atlantic Station Atlantic Station is a neighborhood on the northwestern edge of Midtown Atlanta, Georgia, United States comprising a retail district, office space, condominiums, townhomes and apartment buildings. First planned in the mid-1990s and officially op ...

) and installed Thomas Glenn to get it out of debt. The restructuring of Atlantic Steel would set the table for the biggest move of Woodruff's career: the takeover of

The Coca-Cola Company The Coca-Cola Company is an American multinational beverage corporation founded in 1892, best known as the producer of Coca-Cola. The Coca-Cola Company also manufactures, sells, and markets other non-alcoholic beverage concentrates and syrups, ...

in 1919, which he negotiated with

Asa Griggs Candler Asa Griggs Candler (December 30, 1851 – March 12, 1929) was an American business tycoon and politician who in 1888 purchased the Coca-Cola formula, Coca-Cola recipe for $238.98 from chemist John Stith Pemberton in Atlanta Georgia, Atlanta, G ...

. Ernest Woodruff's sons, Robert W. Woodruff and

George W. Woodruff George Waldo Woodruff (August 27, 1895 – February 4, 1987 in Atlanta, Georgia) was an engineer, businessman, and philanthropist in Atlanta, Georgia. He attended the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1917 and gave generously to both his ...

, would run Coca-Cola for many years, leaving Asa Candler's son

Howard Candler Charles Howard Candler Sr. (December 2, 1878 – October 1, 1957) was an American businessman and author. He was one of the few people that his father, Asa Candler, first trusted with the secret formula used to make Coca-Cola, which then included ...

rather out of the picture.

References

External links

Emily and Ernest Woodruff Foundation Records at Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library, Emory University
Coca-Cola people History of Atlanta Businesspeople from Atlanta People from Columbus, Georgia 1863 births 1944 deaths {{Atlanta-stub