Jefferson-Montgomery-Dale County AlArchives Biographies.....Berney, William May 27, 1846 - 
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Carolyn Golowka http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00012.html#0002972 May 28, 2006, 8:43 pm

Author: “Memorial Record of Alabama,” Volume 2, published by Brant & Fuller in Madison, WI (1893), pages 248-249

“William Berney. – The president of the Berney National bank deserves high 
place in the history of the young financiers of the south.  He was born in 
Montgomery, May 27, 1846, and is the son of Dr. James and Jane E. (Saffold) 
Berney.  His father was a leading physician of Montgomery for more than forty 
years, and there he resided until his death in July, 1880.  William Berney was 
fourth of a family of eleven children, six of whom now survive.  He received 
his preliminary education in Montgomery, and a course of study in Baltimore, 
which was subsequently continued in Montgomery.  He went into the Confederate 
army in 1864, at Dalton, Ga., in Hallonquist’s Reserve regiment of artillery 
and served as an ordinance sergeant until the end of the war.  His was one of 
the most active regiments in the wing of the Tennessee, and participated in the 
severe battles of Dalton, Resaca, Atlanta, Jonesboro and many other of the 
engagements in the great retreat of Gen. Joseph E. Johnston.  At the close of 
the war he received the appointment of deputy collector of internal revenue of 
the second district of Alabama.  Later on, he was appointed cashier to the 
large cotton commission house of Lehman, Durr & Co., which position he held 
till he was called to the agency of the South & North Alabama railroad, which 
he resigned one year later.  He then engaged in farming for a short time, and 
was subsequently appointed bookkeeper of the National Bank of Birmingham, and 
in 1875 he became the cashier of that institution.  Upon the death of Charles 
Linn, the president of the bank, he was elected as his successor.  This very 
important position he held until 1885, when he resigned and organized the 
Central bank of Birmingham, with which he was connected until 1886, when it 
reorganized and received the name of its founder, thus becoming the Berney 
National bank, with William Berney as the president, its capital stock being 
$800,000.  He was married April 29, 1866 to Miss Lizzie J. Taylor, of 
Montgomery, a daughter of Dr. W. P. Taylor.  His beloved wife entered into rest 
December 1892, leaving three daughters, Rebecca Durr, Lizzie Witten, and Mary 
Chollet.”


Additional Comments:
William's parents, James & Jane Elizabeth Saffold Berney were married January 
21, 1840 in Dallas County, Alabama.  James was born September 15, 1812 and died 
July 9, 1880.  Jane was born about 1818, the daughter of Reuben and Mary Evelyn 
Phillips Saffold, of Dallas County, Alabama.

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