William Berney
William Berney (born May 27, 1846 in Montgomery - died ) was the founder of the Berney National Bank.
Berney was born in Montgomery, the fourth of eleven children born to James and Jane Elizabeth Saffold Berney. His father was a noted physician and he was educated in Montomery and Baltimore before entering the Confederate Army in 1864 at Dalton, Georgia. He served with Hallonquist's Reserve Regiment as an ordnance sergeant through the end of the war, participating in battle at Dalton, Resaca, Atlanta, Jonesboro and other sites.
After the war he was appointed deputy collector of internal revenue for the 2nd District of Alabama. He married the former Lizzie J. Taylor of Montgomery on April 29, 1866. Before long he took a position as cashier for the Lehman, Durr & Company cotton commission house. He then worked for the South & North Alabama Railroad for a year before resigning to try his hand at farming.
After the formation of the National Bank of Birmingham, Berney was hired as a bookkeeper and became bank-president Charles Linn's protege. He was promoted to cashier in 1875 and was, the same year, elected to serve on the Birmingham Board of Aldermen during the administration of William H. Morris. After Linn's death in 1882, Berney was elected president of the National Bank of Birmingham, succeeding his mentor.
Three years later he resigned from the National Bank of Birmingham to found his own Central Bank of Birmingham, which was soon reorganized as Berney National Bank.
References
- Memorial Record of Alabama, Volume 2 (1893) Madison, Wisconsin: Brant & Fuller. pp. 248-249. [1]
- Kilpatrick, Andrew (1996) A Legacy of Leadership: The History of AmSouth Bank. Birmingham: AmSouth Bank.