William Rushton Sr

William Rushton, Sr

William James Rushton (born July 15, 1846 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; died June 24, 1922 in Birmingham) was the general manager of the Birmingham Ice Factory Company, a long-time member of the Birmingham Board of Education, and a member of the Birmingham Board of Aldermen during the first administration of A. O. Lane.

Rushton was educated in Philadelphia's public schools and at Episcopal Academy, but moved with his family to New York at the age of fifteen. There he began to clerk at his father's store before moving on to a sales position with a sewing machine manufacturer headquartered at Paterson, New Jersey. He fell into poor health and determined to move South to a warmer climate. He found work in Columbia, Tennessee and succeeded in restoring his health. He married the former Louise Chaffin and entered into business with her brother, William in a grocery and supply house. He saw an advertisement for an ice making machine and traveled to Chicago, Illinois to see it at first hand. Convinced of its application to the grocery business, he purchased a three-ton machine and installed it at their food storage warehouse, perhaps pioneering the manufacture of ice in the South.

Rushton moved to Birmingham in 1881 and installed another 3-ton machine in the young city. The Birmingham Ice Factory Company increased its daily output to eight tons in the second year and fifteen tons in the third. In 1889 he built a 45-ton capacity ice plant at the corner of 22nd Street and Avenue E, and soon had to expand with branch plants in Ensley, Bessemer and Avondale.

Rushton began his business career as a sewing machine salesman. In 1878 he installed a small ice-making plant in Columbia, Tennessee, then moved to Birmingham where he constructed the city's first ice manufacturing facility, expanding to nearby towns such as Bessemer, Ensley and Avondale, and then opening ice plants in Rome and Atlanta, Georgia; Little Rock, Arkansas; Chattanooga, Tennessee; and Chicago, Illinois. He served as the first president of the Southern Ice Exchange and also served terms as president of the American Association of Refrigeration, vice-president of the Third International Congress of Refrigeration, and director of the National Association of Ice Industries.

In Birmingham, Rushton also invested in banks, breweries, fire insurance, coal mining and cold-storage. He served several terms on the Birmingham Board of Education.

Rushton died in 1922 after a long illness. He was survived by two children, Louise Couch and J. Frank Rushton. He was buried in Columbia, Tennessee with his parents and wife.

References

• Template:Moore-1920
• "William James Rushton, Deceased" (July 1922) Ice and Refrigeration, Vol. 63, No. 1, p. 73