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Alabama NewsCenter — What’s in a name? How Birmingham became Birmingham

| December 21, 2021 @ 6:00 pm

By Mark Kelly

Six days before Christmas Day of 1870, a group of wealthy and well-connected men met in the Montgomery offices of Josiah Morris & Co., a private banking firm. In addition to Morris, the group consisted of nine others who had agreed to put up a total of $200,000 – about $4.2 million in current dollars – to purchase shares in a newly-formed real estate concern.

Nearly all of the men had connections to the South and North Alabama Railroad, then under construction from Montgomery to Decatur. The railroad’s route would take it through Jefferson County, where there were vast deposits of iron ore and coal that, the group envisioned, would lead to the development of a major industrial center.

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Alabama News Center tels the stories of the people and businesses powering the states of Alabama, striving to make Alabama a wonderful place to live and work.

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