( This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923....)
This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ++++ The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to ensure edition identification: ++++ Alabama: As It Was, As It Is, And As It Will Be. A Work Exhibiting The Agricultural Actualities Of The Soils Of The State, When Properly Cultivated And Tilled, In Comparison With Those Of The Other States Of The Union; Its Present Agricultural Deformities, And The Remedy Therefor; Its Mineral ... John Turner Milner, North and south Alabama railroad Company, South and North Alabama Railroad Company Barrett & Brown, printers, 1876 History; United States; State & Local; South; Agriculture; Alabama; History / United States / State & Local / South; Technology & Engineering / Agriculture / General
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John Turner Milner was born on 29 September 1826, in Pike County, Georgia. He was the son ofWillis Jay and Elizabeth (Turner) Milner. His parents were pioneer settlers of Georgia, the Milners being Virginians and the Turners North Carolinians.
John's early youth was spent on a farm which his father ran in addition to his activities as a railroad contractor, builder, and miner. The boy received a simple schooling and at the age of ten was working in his father's gold mines in Lumpkin County. In the years immediately following, he gained from his father some practical insight into railroad construction. He matriculated at the Universityof Georgia in 1843 and made a brilliant record until ill health forced him to leave at the end of his third year.
Milner became interested in civil engineering working under George H. Hazelhurst, the distinguished civil engineer who at that time was engaged on the Macon and Western railroad. In less than two years, Mr. Milner was a principal assistant engineer in the construction of the Muscogee road, now a part of the Columbus and Macon railroad. In 1842, he drove an ox team across the plains to Oregon and California and in the latter state was appointed by General Riley, the then provisional governor of California, city surveyor of San Jose the capital of the state. Railroads were then new and construction work was in no small measure a matter of empiricism. What young Milner had learned by the actual experience he combined with his scientific training and within two years became a principal assistant in building the Macon & Western Railroad. This activity was pioneering of a sort, but far more alluring was the gold rush of 1849, which Milner joined, journeying to California by the overland route. After arriving he abandoned mining, however, to become city surveyor of San José, then the capital of the new territory. Returning to Georgia in 1854, he soon removed to Alabama, where he built the Montgomery & West Point Railroad. Meanwhile, a number of enterprising citizens who had tapped the coal and iron deposits of the state were proclaiming the urgent need of a railroad to make accessible the rich mineral resources north of the Black Belt. The persistent argument before a cotton-growing legislature finally resulted, in 1858, in an appropriation for a reconnaissance through the region, and Milner was appointed to undertake the survey. He selected and recommended the line upon which the South and North railroad was built. On November 3, 1858, he was elected chief engineer of the South and North railroad company. His Report of the Chief Engineer of the South & North Alabama Railroad Company (1859) was far-reaching in its ultimate effects. Although construction was suspended during the Civil War, his proposals were eventually followed and his predictions substantiated. By analogy with the state-owned Western & Atlantic of Georgia, he showed how the iron industry would be stimulated to the advantage of the railroad and the state as a whole, and he discussed the value of slave labor, which he declared to be more reliable and cheaper than white. With aid from the Confederacy the railroad was built part way into the mineral region; Milner and Frank Gilmer, a partner, were also granted a subsidy to aid them in erecting the Oxmoor furnaces, in order to provide war materials. When work on the South & North Alabama Railroad was resumed after the war, Milner made an agreement with the rival Alabama & Chattanooga Railroad concerning the location of the crossing of the two, so that both might benefit from the sale of land where a new city would presumably arise. A site near Village Creek was selected, and both roads were surveyed and located toward it. The Carpet-baggers, who controlled both the legislature and the Alabama & Chattanooga, broke the agreement, however, and diverted the direction of the road toward Elyton, on land in the vicinity of which they had taken sixty-day options, thereby hoping to ruin Milner, who had invested heavily in the district first chosen. Milner, however, by his tactics in surveying kept his opponents in such doubt as to where he would actually locate the crossing that they did not dare take up the options, and on the minute the sixty days expired the land was purchased by a Montgomery banker, Josiah Morris, for Milner and his friends. They formed the Elyton Land Company, which, in 1871, founded Birmingham. The following year the Louisville & Nashville Railroad took over the South & North, and Milner retired from railroading. He continued in this position until October 1, 1872, when the railroad was completed and placed under the control of the Louisville and Nashville system at which time he retired from active service. He died at his Newcastle home from a paralytic stroke at the age of seventy-two.
Milner organized the Newcastle Coal & Iron Company (1873) and was connected with the Experimental Coke & Iron Company, which was instrumental in producing the first coke pig iron in Birmingham in 1876. From 1888 to 1896, he served as state senatorfrom Jefferson County. Milner projected the road from Decatur, Georgia, to Elyton, Alabama, through the richest coal and iron region. He founded the sawmills at Boiling.
( This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923....)
Milner was a member of the Presbyterian Church.
On December 30, 1855, Milner married Flora J. Caldwell of Greenville, Alabama, by whom he had one son and three daughters.
20 February 1798 - 18 January 1864
1803 - 11 August 1836
3 May 1842 - 17 February 1921
14 November 1839 - 20 August 1894
10 June 1832 - 11 March 1902
15 December 1833 - 18 June 1910
26 July 1838 - 23 December 1906
8 December 1864 - 2 September 1926
31 December 1862 - 29 January 1942
26 April 1858 - 25 August 1931
