Alfred Haywood (merchant)

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Alfred Haywood (1817–1893) was an English merchant who spent most of his life in Savannah, Georgia, and also served in the city government, including a period as acting mayor.

He was born in Oxford, England, and married Mary Fagan in 1834. The couple moved first to New York and then to Savannah in 1845. Mary died in 1852, and their son died soon after; their daughter died in 1859. In 1859 he married Georgianna Trenholm, with whom he had six more children. During the Civil War he supported the Southern cause.

In business, Haywood started in groceries and then entered the ice trade with Charles Gage. After the war, the firm Haywood, Gage and Company dominated Savannah’s ice market by 1868. He sold his interest in 1883 and retired in 1889, after a brief brick-making venture from 1865 to 1867.

In public life, Haywood was elected alderman in 1869 and served three terms, two as chairman; he was acting mayor in 1871. He helped complete Savannah’s sewage system and attended the laying of the City Market foundation stone in 1876. He was active in Freemasonry and local charities, and as president of the Coast Line Railroad helped open the Broughton Street line in 1874. He adopted his granddaughter in 1878 and changed her surname to Haywood. He built two Savannah houses and died in 1893 of paralysis, buried in Laurel Grove Cemetery beside his wives.