John T. Milner

Who is John T. Milner?

Colonel John T. Milner was an engineer and a businessman. He accumulated wealth in lumber and coal mine interests in Bolling, Alabama. He started the Milner Coal and Railroad Mines.

He was a native of Pike County, Georgia. He spent his early youth in the Dahlonega, Georgia gold fields. He received a classical training at Athens, Georgia. In 1848 he went to California to follow the San Francisco gold rush and eventually became the City Surveyor of San Jose, California. He moved to Alabama in 1852 and built a number of railroads. He laid out some of the first railroad lines that ran across Alabama. The primary one was the "North and South" which traversed from Birmingham to Montgomery. As a railroad engineer, he was the principal player in choosing site of the City of Birmingham, based on his assessment of the strategic resources and transportation advantages of Jones Valley in Alabama. It is due to his rail line that brought Birmingham into existence.

In many respects, he was the father of Southern industrialization, particularly in the deep, deep South. Milner's vision triggered decades of rapid industrial growth.