Kolb's Gems: Success after the Civil War

Reuben F. Kolb was a successful Alabama farmer when the Civil War broke out in 1861. Educated at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (class of 1859), Kolb married the former Callie Cargile in 1860 and the union eventually produced three children.

          The coming of the war interrupted all Kolb’s farming. He served in Company B of the 1^st Alabama Regiment immediately after the war commenced and then joined the Barbour Light Artillery in 1862. The Barbour bunch became part of Hilliard’s Legion later in 1862, joining the Fourth Battalion. The Fourth Battalion was supposed to be the artillery arm of the Legion, but Kolb’s men were split away from the Legion and put into another command.

          Kolb’s Battery served the Confederate Army until it surrendered at Augusta, Georgia in April of 1865. According to one website, Kolb’s Battery lost about 45 men to disease and about 70 more were killed or wounded in action.

          Kolb’s military career is just the tease to an interesting career in both agriculture and politics.

          Returning to his farm and family, Kolb started cultivating watermelons using the modern science of the time. His melons were so successful they were named Kolb’s Gems. The new strain of the fruit was hardier than the average melon. Kolb also experimented with peaches and pears.

          Eventually, Kolb played a leading role in the formation of Alabama’s state department of agriculture and industry. He was named a Trustee of what is now Auburn University. Kolb was elected President of the National Farmer’s Congress in 1887 and again in 1889.

          A populist, Kolb ran unsuccessfully for governor of Alabama three times. Failing to get the Democratic nomination one year, he mounted a third-party challenge and lost anyway. His gubernatorial campaigns were aimed at (and had the support of) Alabama’s poor workers and farmers. According to the Encyclopedia Alabama website, Kolb’s platform supported and was supported by African American farmers in Alabama.

          In 1911, Kolb was appointed the state’s Commissioner of Agriculture and he held that job until 1915.

Kolb died in 1918, having devoted his post-war career to educating fellow farmers on the most modern techniques and pushing the state away from its dependence on cotton. He gave the Alabama’s growers a louder voice at the state level and, as President of the National Farmers Congress, gave Alabama’s farmers a higher profile nationally.

Kolb’s story is not often told but he was an important man in his time and state. The bruising nature of post-war politics in the south denied him a serious chance at Alabama’s highest office, but his impact on the agriculture industry is undeniable. By pushing the scientific approach to farming, he made his mark.

And that’s important.

Thanks for reading.