Charles Linn

Best known as: sailor, banker, industrialist

Born: June 13, 1814 in Pohja, Finland

Died: August 7, 1882 in Birmingham, Alabama

Resting place: Oak Hill Cemetery, Birmingham, Alabama

Alternative name: Carl Erik Engelbert Sjodahl

Biography:

Charles Linn was born in Pohja, Finland in 1814 as Carl Erik Engelbert Sjodahl. His family spoke Swedish and were of Swedish descent. His mother was named Engla Gustava Collin, and his father, Erik Johan Sjodahl, was the manager of an iron works. Carl attended the Royal Academy of Turku, but in 1827 the city was destroyed in what became known as the Great Fire of Turku. Carl became a pharmacist's apprentice, but he wasn't happy with that career and stowed away aboard a ship when he was 13. He was discovered by the crew as the ship was crossing the Atlantic Ocean. They put him to work as a cabin boy, and he began to learn English from them. Carl enjoyed life at sea and took a job aboard a merchant ship in 1830. Over the next few years, he became a very accomplished sailor, crossing the Atlantic Ocean 53 times and circumnavigating the world three times.

In 1833, Sjodahl immigrated to the United States and became an apprentice matchmaker. He started out in New York City and later moved to Savannah and New Orleans. He eventually saved up enough money to purchase a backpack of tinware, which he sold at a profit. In 1838 he settled in Montgomery, Alabama and resumed making and selling matches. He also opened a fruit stand and a bakery and later began transporting chickens and eggs to Mobile, Alabama. Initially, he was homeless and slept outside on cotton bales by the riverside, but his businesses gradually grew and made him wealthy. Around this time he changed his name to Carl Linn, and later Charles Linn. In 1840 he opened a mercantile store and also a large farm, both of which became very profitable.

Over the years, Linn made three trips back home to Finland. During the second trip, in 1842, he married his childhood sweetheart, Emelie Antoinette Forss. She returned to Alabama with him. They had four children: Elvina (Ellen), Charles, Antoinette, and Edward. In 1852 Emelie died after giving birth to Edward. Later that year, Linn got married again, this time to Eliza Jane Summerlin, a Montgomery native. They would eventually have four children together: Mary, Lizzie, George Thomas, and George Marion.

When the Civil War broke out, Linn and his family fled the country and headed to Dresden, Germany. But he and his oldest son, Charles, soon returned and joined the Confederate States Navy. They purchased a 193-foot long riverboat called the CSS Kate Dale and became blockade runners. Linn was given the rank of Captain. Their mission was to bring cotton and cattle hides to Cuba to trade for gold and supplies, and the Confederate Quartermaster Bureau promised them half of any profits from this venture. After successfully making the crossing several times, the Kate Dale was captured by the USS R. R. Cuyler near the Florida Keys on July 14, 1863. Linn and his son were taken to Washington, D.C. to be tried as war criminals, but they were soon pardoned.

After the war, Linn moved to New Orleans, where he joined the wholesale grocery company Flash, Lewis & Co. and opened a grocery warehouse. He hired numerous Finnish immigrants to work at this warehouse. Shortly thereafter he returned to Alabama and settled in the new community of Birmingham. In 1866 the rest of the Linn family returned from Europe and joined him in Alabama, although his son Charles remained in New Orleans working at the grocery company. In 1869, Linn made a trip to Finland and brought 53 new immigrants back to Alabama with him.

In 1872 he opened the National Bank of Birmingham with $50,000 worth of gold. It was the first bank in the city. In 1873 Linn was elected to Birmingham's Board of Aldermen. Later the year, he ordered the construction of a new headquarters for the bank: a large, 3-story building on the corner of 1st Avenue North and 20th Street. Because the city's future was uncertain at the time, people nicknamed the building "Linn's folly." After the city emerged from a cholera epidemic and an economic recession, he hosted a "Calico Ball" at the building.

In 1874, Linn created the city's first public park, which became known as Linn's Park. In 1875, he joined the Cooperative Experimental Coke & Iron Company. He also founded the Birmingham Car and Foundry Company, which eventually expanded into the Linn Iron Works. He brought in skilled workers from Ohio to work at this company. That same year, his wife Eliza passed away. He married a third time, to a woman named Fannie Clark.

Linn's business ventures, as well as the city of Birmingham itself, continued to thrive. In 1881, for his 67th birthday, a huge party took place at Linn's Park with musical performances, speeches, and ice cream. A lunar eclipse also happened that night. Linn passed away in Birmingham in 1882 at age 68 and is buried in Oak Hill Cemetery. The National Bank of Birmingham eventually became known as AmSouth Bancorporation, and later Regions Financial. In 2005 Linn was inducted into the Birmingham Business Hall of Fame.

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Portrait of Linn from the book "Jefferson County and Birmingham, Alabama" (1887)

Photo of Linn, courtesy of Birmingham Public Library, via Encyclopedia of Alabama

Photo of Linn from the Birmingham News, July 1, 1903

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