John Rhoads

• September 24th, 2021

John L. Rhoads was well-known for applying his brilliance and technical skills in helping Alabama entrepreneurs launch their businesses as a nationally recognized leader in the accounting industry.

He started his career in 1942 at Ernst & Ernst, which eventually became Ernst & Young. He was made partner in 1967 and retired in 1980.

In the 1960s and 1970s, he served companies in Huntsville’s rapidly-growing aerospace sector, helping several become large publicly-owned institutions. As a senior auditing and accounting technical partner, he guided companies through their interactions with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Some of the industries he worked included aerospace, farming, healthcare, and manufacturing. For example, his financial expertise helped a Birmingham-area medical facility open its doors, grow, and proceed with a stock offering. He was admired by his colleagues for his insistence on adhering to the highest ethical standards of the public accounting profession.

As a result of his reputation, he served as Council Chairman of the Alabama Society of CPAs and President of the Birmingham Chapter of the Institute of Management Accountants as well as a member of that organization’s National Board of Directors.

Rhoads was an ardent supporter of Alabama’s educational institutions, either by his service to the University of Alabama at Birmingham as an adjunct faculty member or through scholarship and program support.

That support at The University of Alabama takes form in the John L. & Margaret E. Rhoads Endowed Scholarships in the Accounting, Athletics, and Food and Nutrition programs, plus the John and Ann Rhoads Softball Stadium, built in 2000 and recently enhanced. Endowed scholarships at the University of Alabama at Birmingham support students in the Accounting program.

Rhoads was a longtime executive committee member of the Jefferson County chapter of The University of Alabama National Alumni Association, serving as its Vice President and Treasurer for over 20 years. He lived in Birmingham and graduated from The University of Alabama with a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting.

Rhoads passed away in 2001; his widow Ann Rhoads passed away in 2021.

Cecil Batchelor

• September 24th, 2021

Cecil Batchelor was the chairman of CBS Banc-Corp and chairman emeritus of CB&S Bank, based in Russellville, Alabama. His 56-year banking career was one defined by success in establishing and leading banks throughout the state – and his impacts on the industry are profound.

Upon graduation from Phillips High School in Bear Creek, Batchelor enlisted in the United States Navy but had to wait for a period of three months before he could officially join. During that waiting period, he started several business ventures –– and also met the woman who would eventually become his wife.

His time in the Navy was largely spent stationed stateside in Williamsburg, Va., where he patrolled the eastern seaboard for submarines –– World War II was in full swing at that point. It was at that point he met – and befriended – a German POW named Georg Giersberg, with whom he made a promise to help him emigrate to the United States at a later date.

After the war ended, he moved back to Alabama and enrolled at Florence State Teachers College – now known as the University of North Alabama – in Florence with the desire to become an educator. An opportunity came along to move into auto sales and later retail hardware sales, thanks to the encouragement of a connection in Russellville.

After establishing himself in the Russellville business community, Batchelor was elected to the board of directors for Citizens Bank in 1964, which was his official introduction to the banking industry.

At 45 years old, he was the youngest member of the board by 20 years and soon realized his retail experience could be a great asset to the board and help the bank through periods of change and innovation.

After a failed attempt by a majority of the board to sell the bank, which Batchelor, then chairman of the board, did not support, he decided then to begin buying shares in the bank until he had a majority holding to prevent any future attempts to sell the bank. The rationale behind this was to preserve the bank’s valuable role as a community asset, in touch with the needs of the area’s residents.

Over the years he continued serving as chairman of the board and advocating for the bank and for policy changes, all while acquiring stock in the business and finally becoming the majority stockholder in 1993, ensuring the bank would remain independently owned and operated.

During Batchelor’s time as chairman of the board for Citizens Bank, he helped to spearhead the bank’s expansion into other markets once expanding beyond county lines was allowed. In 2008, Citizens Bank changed its name to CB&S Bank.

In May 2016 after more than 50 years of service as chairman of the board for CB&S Bank, having overseen its growth from $5 million in assets to more than $2 billion in assets, with 57 locations throughout the southeast, Batchelor became chairman emeritus of the board until his passing August 17, 2021.

But besides his accomplishments in business, Batchelor’s effort to help his German POW friend Georg Giersberg emigrate is among his proudest achievements. Years after WW2, Batchelor tracked Giersberg down to a small English town and helped him and his family emigrate to the United States. Seeing the family flourish and succeed brought Batchelor much joy and happiness over the years.

Batchelor was involved in many civic and community causes and groups over his lifetime. He was an active member and leader in the First United Methodist Church of Russellville. He was the longest-serving Civitan member in the state of Alabama at over 72 years, which included time spent as the president, the treasurer, and the secretary of the Russellville Civitan Club.

He organized and was the first president of the Russellville Industrial Board, the Russellville Jaycees, and the Russellville Merchant Association., and served as president of the Franklin County Chamber of Commerce, among other business and civic affiliations.

He is survived by his wife of 75 years, Olivia Robinson Batchelor; his daughter, Rebecca Reeves, and her husband, Brad; his son, Greg Batchelor, and his wife, Donna; his grandson, John Bradley Reeves, and his wife, Alana; his grandson, John Gregory Batchelor; and his great-grandson, Rhett Reeves.

William P. G. Harding

• September 22nd, 2021

William P.G. Harding made an enduring contribution to the forma­tion of our nation’s unique form of central banking – the Federal Reserve System.

This native Alabamian served on the Federal Reserve Board from the day it was formed on August 10, 1914, until the expiration of his eight-year appointment on August 9, 1922. During

the last six years of his term, he was the Board’s Chief Executive Officer (then known as Governor) through the trying times of World War I and the troublesome post-war period. His book, The Formative Period of the Federal Reserve System, published in 1925, is still one of the best ac­counts of how the U.S. finally established a more lasting central banking system.

William P. G. Harding was born in Greene County, Alabama on May 5, 1864 – son of Horace and Eliza (Gould) Harding. Soon after the War Between the States, the family moved to Tuscaloosa, where young William received his early education under well-known local tutors. The family’s home was not far from the campus of The University of Alabama, which he entered in 1878. He received an AB degree in 1880 and an AM degree in 1881. At the age of seventeen, he was the youngest student to have received that degree. After graduation, he took a brief course at a business college in Poughkeepsie, New York, before returning to Alabama.

In 1882, he became a clerk and bookkeep­er for a private bank in Tuscaloosa – the J.H. Fitts & Co. (now First Alabama Bank).

In 1886, he moved to Birmingham to work as a bookkeeper for Berney National Bank. Promotion came slow­ly, but by 1893 he had risen to the position of Cashier. In 1895, he married Amanda Moore, daughter of Sydenham and Mary Moore, who had mov­ed from Eutaw to Birmingham. In 1896, William P.G. Harding moved to the First National Bank of Birmingham as Vice President. By 1902, he had become President of First National, which was then the largest financial institution in the state with one­seventh of all the deposits of all national banks in Alabama.

Soon after his elevation to the Presidency, the young Hardings moved to the “most fashionable neighborhood in town.” Their neighbors were another Tuscaloosa family who had moved to Birmingham – the Rob­ert Jemisons. Years later, Robert Jemison, Jr., who called Harding a close personal friend, provided an insight into the char­acter of Alabama’s first central banker, when he recalled:

Unfortunately, very few people knew and appreciated Mr. Hard­ ing, particularly as a good citizen because he was not the type of person who knew how to ‘sell himself,’ or mix with people in a gracious and cordial manner. He was essentially a student and would often let his mind drift into thoughts and ideas while in the presence of people with whom he should be interested in what they were discussing at the time.”

William P.G. Harding became a strong figure in the economic life of Birmingham, the State, and the region. He served on the Board of Directors of the Birmingham Rail­way, Light and Power Company. He was the primary motivator behind three well-known Birmingham landmarks -Elmwood Ceme­tery, the Tutwiler Hotel, and the City of Fair­field. His astute financial advice enabled others to make these projects succeed. In 1908, bankers in the State acknowledged his abilities by naming him President of the Alabama Bankers’ Association. In 1913, he served as President of the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce.

Then in 1914, William P.G. Harding was chosen as the South’s representative on the first Federal Reserve Board. About his ap­pointment, he later wrote:

“I felt complimented upon my selection to be a member of the Federal Reserve Board, a body about which there had been so much talk for several months. I had no idea, however, at first of accepting the offered appointment. I was a native of Alabama and had been for twenty-eight years a resident of Birmingham. I had seen the place grow from a town of ten thousand to a city of more than one hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants, and had been promoted from a bookkeeper’s desk to the presidency of the largest bank in the State.”

But a letter from President Woodrow Wil­son convinced William P. G. Harding to accept the eight-year appointment. He accepted the “great opportunity to serve the country” and made “the sacrifices necessary to accept.”

He divested himself of all business ties in Alabama, including that of the bank, and agreed to serve at a salary of only $12,000 annually. When he was sworn in as a member of the first Federal Reserve Board on August 10, 1914, he became Alabama’s first central banker.

During the next eight years, William P.G. Harding, as a member of the Board, assumed an enormous amount of work and responsibil­ity. The Board had to supervise the creation of the twelve regional Federal Reserve Banks, the selection of their directors, and the appointment of their staff. Even the construction of the buildings to house the banks was a massive undertaking.

The greater burden of the Board arose from the start of World War I, which put enormous pressure on the financial system of the United States. Harding served as Governor of the Federal Reserve Board during this time. He also served -without any additional pay – as Managing Director of the War Finance Cor­poration, created by Congress to finance the United States’ participation in the war.

A post-war recession brought controversy about the Federal Reserve System and even bitter attacks on Harding from a senator from Alabama on the floor of the Chamber. Because of the controversy and the fact that William P.G. Harding had no close relationship with the newly elected President Warren P. Hard­ing, it was not surprising that the President chose not to re-appoint the Federal Reserve Board’s Governor. In 1923, William P. G. Harding accepted an appointment as governor of the Regional Federal Reserve Bank in Boston.

Through the years, Harding received hono­rary degrees in recognition of his accomplish­ments. In 1916, The University of Alabama conferred an L.L.D. and for years after contin­ued to feature him at commencement services. He also received honorary degrees from Har­vard and Columbia Universities in 1922.

William P.G. Harding died in Boston on April 7, 1930. At his request, he was buried in his old hometown of Birmingham in Elmwood Cemetery.

Those who knew him best have said that he “loved Alabama and he loved Birmingham. He was one of Alabama’s and Birmingham’s most loyal citizens.”

(Biographical information derived primarily from a paper by Philip C. Jackson, Jr.)

Johann Gottfried Cullman

• September 22nd, 2021

The life of the founder of Cullman and of Cullman County, Alabama, has been scantily recorded in history books. But when his accomplishments are measured against the adversity he overcame, he can be ranked among the bravest and greatest of Alabamians.

Johann Gottfried Cullmann, son of Gottfried and Juliana (Schneider) Cullmann, was born July 2, 1823, in Frankweiler, Canton Landau, Rheinpfalz, Bavaria. The exact details of his early life are somewhat sketchy, but it is known that he entered upon a mercantile career after completing his education at the local school. Eventually, he became proprietor of an export business at Neustadt an der Haard where he met and married Josephine Low. They had four children: Theodore, Otto, Maria, and Alice.

The young Bavarian believed in the rights of the common man as evidenced by his participation in the Revolution of 1848, and in the Danish War in 1864. In these fights against the oppressive rule, he expended the resources of two businesses. In 1864, it became obvious that he was no longer welcomed by German authorities because of his revolutionary activities. Thus, at the age of forty-one, he left his family, friends, and homeland to begin a new life. He came to the United States with a burning ambition to establish a German colony where he and his countrymen could be free to live in peace and happiness. Many long, hard years were to pass before he was to realize his dream.

John Cullman (the Americanized version of his name) entered the U.S. through New York. Finding no suitable work, he moved to Philadelphia where he worked as a clerk. He then moved to Cincinnati which had a large German colony. Being ambitious, he studied law at night. After being ad­mitted to the bar, he found a large clientele among the Germans of the city. By 1871, he had amassed enough resources to begin his search for a place to establish a colony.

The extent of his search is unknown. But in 1871, he was in North Alabama where he made the acquaintance of former Governor Patton, who gave him much encouragement.

The beautiful Tennessee Valley must have reminded John Cullman of his native Rhine Valley. Near the end of 1871 or in early 1872, he attempted to buy land for his colony near Florence, Alabama but met with opposition (probably stemming from people’s distrust of “foreigners” during the bitter period after the War Between the States).

This failure did not discourage him. Through Governor Patton, John Cull­man learned that the Great North-South (later, L&N) Railway had completed the mainline connecting Nashville with Montgomery and was interested in any scheme of development of a largely unsettled area of North Central Alabama through which the line passed. The governor arranged for John Cullman to meet Lewis Fink, the L&N agent of Decatur. The two men explored every mile of land along the line between Decatur and Montgomery.

For his colony, John Cullman initially purchased around 350,000 acres fifteen miles on each side of the railroad near the highest point along the line between Mobile and Cincinnati. He then returned to Cincinnati to “recruit” German families for the new colony in Alabama. His oldest son Theodore (who had joined him by this time) was a great help in these efforts. Unfortunately, Theodore died of typhoid fever. A grieving John Cullman buried his twenty-five-year-old son in Cincinnati and then once more turned from adversity to work.

The actual settlement of the free German colony of Cullman began in late April of 1873. Five families were present when the first trees were felled. By the next year, there were 123 families.

John Cullman had the town laid off in perfect square blocks with streets wide enough to “drive four teams of horses abreast along their course.” The railroad was bordered on each side by parks and later hidden from view by lowering the tracks several feet below ground level. He also made certain that ground was laid aside for Protestant and Catholic churches. He himself established St. John’s United Church and donated the land on which it is built.

John Cullman does not seem to have rested a moment in his endeavors. He sought to find a suc­cessful economic pattern for his colony and to bring in as many immigrants as he could.

He encouraged the establishment of a variety of businesses in the town and in the county – including a land company, newspapers, a wine-producing company, and a savings and loan. (The Cullman Saving!? and Loan, which was the first chartered savings and loan in Alabama, was founded by John Cullman and a group of fellow citizens).

John Cullman made at least three trips to Germany to encourage immigration. It is evident that he would sell land to immigrants and then use the money from the sales to pay for others to come. They were settled in the town and in the area which became the county. Perhaps he brought more immigrants to the U.S. than any other individual.

The town of Cullman was incorporated in 1875 and Cullman County, in 1877 – both by the act of the Alabama State Legislature with which John Cull­man seems to have had considerable influence. He was also an influential man in the town, but refused to seek civil office because, according to reports, “that would be too much like his homeland where the privileged often had too much to say and the common man, not enough.”

John Cullman’s hardships and disappointments did not cease with the realization of establishing a free German colony. He was the victim of an attempted assassination by crooks and squatters sometime in 1875. In 1884, his second son, Otto, (who had come to Cullman to join his father) succumbed to typhoid fever. Otto was only twenty-nine. He is buried next to his father in the center of the Cullman City Cemetery.

John Finley McRae

• September 20th, 2021

John Finley McRae began his remarkable career at the age of eighteen on the lowest rung of the professional ladder of the smallest bank in Mobile. When he retired fifty-four years later, he was chairman of the board of that same bank, and the institution itself Merchants National had become one of the most prestigious financial organizations in the state. The young man and the young bank, it could be said, matured side by side, and together they became two of the most valuable assets of the port city of Mobile.

Born in Montgomery shortly before the turn of the· century, Finley McRae was the son of a Baptist minister, the Reverend George W. McRae, who, in 1907, moved his family to Mobile. There young McRae attended public schools and graduated from Barton Academy in 1913. He then enrolled in Birmingham’s Howard College, but after three semesters, because of his parents’ illness and the depletion of his financial resources, he returned home to find a job.

In February 1915, he accepted a position as runner and stenographer with Merchants Bank of Mobile, then in its thirteenth year of operation. Mr. Ernest F. Ladd, who was made president of the bank that same year, saw much promise in his young employee and encouraged him to learn the banking business. McRae had ideas along those lines himself, and during the next three years, he worked in all departments of the bank and rose to the position of auditor. With the advent of World War I, however, McRae left to join the army. When the war ended, he returned to the bank, and by 1919 he was an assistant cashier.

As the bank grew during the next decade, so did the contributions of Finley McRae. Guided by his friend and mentor Ernest Ladd, McRae began to take a leading hand in the ‘s affairs. Recognizing the importance of the Port of Mobile to the community and to the bank, McRae organized a foreign department. He traveled throughout the southeast and midwest in search of trade business, learned to speak Spanish so that he might communicate better with his South American business associates, and succeeded in establishing a department that was for many years the only fully-organized Foreign Department in a bank between New Orleans and Baltimore.

By 1929, Merchants Bank of Mobile had become Merchants National Bank, with a brand new eighteen-story building, and Finley McRae had become vice president. Under Ernest Ladd’s leadership, Merchants National survived the difficult depression years and emerged larger and stronger than before. Between 1930 and 1940, deposits rose from $12 million to $40 million, and during those same years, McRae’s role in the bank’s affairs expanded at a similar rate. In 1935 he became a director; in 1937, executive vice president; and in 1941, when Ernest Ladd died unexpectedly, Finley McRae succeeded him as president.

Not long after he assumed office, the new president made a compact with the official staff: If they would never refer to him as “boss,” he, in turn, would never fail them in courtesy. That belief in a congenial, cooperative working environment became the hallmark of McRae’s tenure as chief executive, and under his guidance Merchants National became known not only as an important financial institution but as a pleasant place to work and to do business as well.

Believing that money was important only insofar as it contributed to human happiness, McRae, as president, used the bank’s resources to better the lives of as many people as he could. During World War II, when a significant portion of the bank’s staff left to join the war effort, Merchants National supplemented their military pay so that they could maintain their incomes at pre-induction levels. Recognizing the important role the oil industry could play in improving the region’s economy, McRae and his staff began financing oil production in Louisiana and Mississippi in the late 1940s. As a consequence, Merchants National’s Petroleum Department was well established and ready to serve Mobile when oil was discovered at nearby Citronelle in 1955.

During the almost quarter of a century of Finley McRae’s presidency, Merchants National continued to expand. It was improved services, however, and not expansion in and of itself that McRae sought, for the true worth of a bank, he often said, was measured by its usefulness rather than by its size. To improve its usefulness to the community, then, Merchants National entered the branch banking field in 1955, when a law permitting branch banking in Mobile County was passed, and that same year the bank also began enlarging and renovating its downtown quarters. Perhaps the most significant step toward improving services came in 1959, however, when Merchants National became the first bank in Alabama, and among the first in the South, to install electronic data processing equipment. The move enabled the bank to introduce “no passbook savings” to Mobile and to improve many of its other customer services.

Finley McRae’s reputation as a respected banker with a broad knowledge of financial affairs prompted many business and industrial corporations to call upon his services as a director. In that capacity, he served some of the largest corporations in Alabama, including Waterman Steamship Corporation, American Liberty Insurance Company of Birmingham, Gulf, Mobile and Ohio Railroad Company, Alabama Dry Dock and Shipbuilding Company, Southern Industries Corporation, International Paper Company, Alabama Power Company, and United Gas Corporation. McRae also served in important advisory and directional capacities in the Federal Reserve System and represented the southeastern states on the Federal Advisory Council.

Known throughout his life for his “genius at getting things done” and for his energetic support of the community, McRae became a central figure in the civic life of Mobile. He helped found and served for many years as a trustee of the United Fund of Mobile; he was a founding director of the Southern Research Institute, a non-profit corporation devoted to scientific research; he served on the board of trustees of the Mobile Infirmary for several decades during which the institution became one of the largest and best-equipped hospitals in the South; and from 1955 to 1957, he served as chairman of the Rhodes Scholarship Selection Committee for the State of Alabama.

An avid sports fan, McRae was a founding director of the Mobile Touch down Club, which developed a county-wide athletic program for Mobile’s youth. He was also chairman of the board of trustees of the Ernest F. Ladd Memorial Stadium Corporation, president of the Mobile Arts and Sports Association, and president of the Senior Bowl Association. (Without McRae, noted the Mobile Press-Register, “there would be no Ladd Stadium and no Senior Bowl.”)

McRae’s many contributions to the region were publicly acknowledged in 1955, when the Chamber of Commerce named him Mobilian of the Year, and again in 1963 when Spring Hill College awarded him an honorary doctorate. Finley McRae, said the college’s trustees, is a “most exemplary” citizen, a man whose “free-reined energy, breadth of vision, integrity of character, and dedication to Christian ethical ideals … led him to a position of respect and responsibility unique in this region . . . His service on behalf of his fellow citizens has been generous. His faith in the future of this region is firm.” And, the trustees concluded, as did the people of Mobile, that every citizen in the port city “is better off because of his presence in our midst.”

Fox Henderson, Sr.

• September 20th, 2021

Fox Henderson; noted the Troy Messenger in 1918, “was a born leader of men,” a man who possessed “attributes that would have made him a success in any field of endeavor he might have undertaken.” His principal characteristics, the paper noted, were energy, willpower and determination,” and “the intuitive judgment to use his talents to the best advantage.” Those characteristics were to benefit not only Henderson and his family, but the city of Troy, and indeed all of the people of Southeast Alabama, for during the decades before and after the turn of the century, Fox Henderson built a varied and extremely successful network of businesses and industries that strengthened the economy of his region and brought new hope to many of its inhabitants.

Born in Pike County, Alabama, in 1853, the oldest son of Jeremiah Augustus Henderson and Mildred Elizabeth (Hill) Henderson Fox Henderson moved with his family to the county seat of Troy in 1869 when his father opened a mercantile business there. Young Henderson and his brother Clem joined their father in the prospering business, and in 1881, the brothers expanded their financial, holdings by purchasing the Pike County Bank, a still struggling operation that had been in business only four years. With Fox Henderson as president, the brothers changed the institution’s name to Farmers Merchants Bank and moved the facility to new quarters. Alabama, and as its reputation for reliability spread throughout Pike County, the institution’s assets grew. “The personality of Fox Henderson,” one local reporter noted, “and the confidence and trust which the citizens of this section held for his ability and dependability were enough in itself to bring the institution increasing renown.” The Henderson brothers operated Farmers & For twenty years after its founding, Farmers & Merchants was the only financial institution in that section of Merchant’s as a private bank until 1898, when they received a state charter. Such was the growth and development of the firm’s business, however, that the board of directors decided in 1902 to expand their operations, and Farmers & Merchants became Farmers & Merchants National Bank that same year.

Banking, however, was far from Fox Henderson’s sole interest. In 1880, a year before he and his brother purchased the bank, Henderson became a partner in Michener, Henderson & Company, makers of spokes, handles, and picker sticks. Some twenty years later, the firm’s 125 employees were producing 15,000 spokes, 500,000 handles and 640,000 picker sticks a year. And they made other products too, such as a gigantic special-order cart constructed in 1902 for a mill in Goshen. “The wheels of the cart,” reported the Troy Messenger, “are ten feet high and thirty feet in circumference. The tires are nearly one-half-inch thick and almost six inches wide.”

Willing to think in expansive terms and always open to new business ventures that might bring needed capital to the area, Henderson spotted another opportunity in 1887, when Alabama Midland Railway Company was organized to build a railroad from Montgomery, to Troy, to Chattahoochee, Florida. On the same day that Alabama Midland was incorporated, Fox Henderson and others – many of whom were officers in the railway company – filed a declaration of incorporation for Alabama Terminal and Improvement Company. The purpose of the new business: to build and equip the proposed railroad. Fox Henderson served as treasurer of the company.

Three years later, in 1890, yet another venture captured his imagination. That year he opened Henderson Knitting Mills, an operation with an output of fifty dozen garments a day. Fox Henderson served as secretary-treasurer. By the turn of the century, he had become one of the largest landowners in a several-county area, and on part of his 6000-acre holdings, Henderson established the Arcadia Dairy, whose imported Jersey cows supplied the citizens of Troy with fresh milk and butter daily. Henderson then turned his attention to the shortage of fertilizer in the area. Although Troy already had a large fertilizer mill, the demand for its products was such that the county still had to import several thousand tons a year. Convinced that the market could support another mill and that its successful operation could establish Troy as an exporter of fertilizer, Henderson forged ahead as he had on many occasions before. The Standard Chemical and Oil Company that he founded became the largest plant of its kind in Alabama. By 1918, the 300 employees in the feed mill and chemical plant were handling 8000 tons of peanuts and producing 38,000 tons of crushed phosphate rock and 75,000 tons of fertilizer annually.

Henderson’s business and industrial interests had become so complex by 1911 that he formed a holding company and took his children in as partners, consolidating his own holdings and theirs for central operation. By providing financing for institutions throughout South Alabama and by backing many of the leading corporations in the area, Fox Henderson & Sons became widely known in Alabama for its progressive policies and its reliability as a financial institution. The scope of Henderson’s own business affairs was revealed in a 1911 pamphlet published by the firm. In that year, Henderson held the following offices: He was president of the First National Bank of Dozier’s, the First National Bank of Luverne, Farmers & Merchants National Bank of Troy, Henderson National Bank of Huntsville, the First National Bank of Brantley, and Standard Chemical and Oil Company of Troy. He was vice president of the First National Bank of Andalusia, the First National Bank of Brundidge, the Henderson Lumber Company of Sanford, and the Planters Trading Company (general merchants) of Elba. He was a partner in Henderson & Hill (department store and advancing merchants) of Brantley, the Cody-Henderson Company (general merchants, livestock, fertilizers) of Luverne, the Henderson-Black Company (importers, jobbers, and distributors) of Troy, and Henderson Live Stock Company (mules, horses, wagons, buggies, harness) of Troy.

The reputation for sound business dealings begun by Fox Henderson, Sr. was to be continued by the sons. “Fox Henderson & Sons,” noted the Troy Messenger in the early 1930s, “through its farsighted and constructive activities, has built the largest and strongest financial institution in Southeast Alabama and one that is reputed to be among the most stable in the entire South.” In civic affairs, also, Fox Henderson took a leading hand. When his congregation needed laborers to build a new church or when his Masonic Lodge needed a lot on which to construct a hospital, Henderson supplied them, and he donated his time and his resources to many other public endeavors as well.

Henderson’s death in 1918, following a long illness, was mourned throughout South Alabama by his family, friends, business associate, and many others who understood what his leadership had meant to the region. He was remembered b them as a quiet, determined man who never sought the limelight and who never spoke unkindly of his fellow man. He was remembered as an inventive and courageous pioneer in the world of business and industry, whose confidence in the region’s future had inspired confidence in others. As more than one obituary noted, much of the progress and prosperity South Alabama had witnessed in the preceding decades had been due in no small measure to the vision and leadership of Fox Henderson. “He was a born leader of men,” it was said, and “he was a life out of the ordinary.”

John Bingham Barnett

• September 20th, 2021

John Barnett was always keenly aware of the South’s resources and potential for development.

Into a South besieged by the winds of change, John Bigham Barnett was born on February 1, 1874, to William H. Barnett and Eliza Cunning Barnett. One of five children, he spent his early years at Bon Aire, the family home place some twelve miles from Troy in Pike County, Alabama, where he did farm work and helped in ginning cotton. As a teenager, he taught school to secure enough funds to send himself to college. He attended Alabama Polytechnic Institute in Auburn and compiled an excellent record in his freshman year. At the beginning of his sophomore year, he returned home because of his mother’s terminal illness.

After his mother died, John Barnett began work as an insurance agent for his cousin Joe Dean of Opelika. Barnett’s impressive performance soon resulted in his transfer to the Louisville, Kentucky, office of Mr. Dean’s insurance firm.

In the fall of 1898, Barnett decided to continue his education and entered The University of Alabama to study law, where he became a member of the Order of Kappa Alpha and made many pleasant acquaintances. Two of his best friends were Miller Bonner and Thomas Wesley Martin. Barnett graduated from the university with a law degree in June 1900, and moved to Camden, Alabama, to join his friend, Sherwood Bonner, in the insurance business.

By early 1901, he had moved to Monroeville to establish a law practice. The county seat of Monroe County, Monroeville, was then a small town (population a little over five hundred) with no paved streets, no sidewalks, no street lamps, and only one brick building – the courthouse. After living in Monroeville a short time, he received a very flattering offer of a posi­tion in the insurance business in Hartford, Connecticut. Barnett went to Hartford, but soon returned to Monroeville because it was “a good land with good people.” His love and admiration of the people of Monroeville never changed, nor did his love for the good earth and the fertile lands which surrounded the town.

As he became engrossed in his law practice, Barnett soon realized that Monroeville and Monroe County, like much of the South in the early 1900s, suffered from an inadequate system of credit. Because the town and county had no banking facilities, and thus a shortage of money for loans, Barnett appealed to the British-American Mortgage Company to lend money to the farmers of the area. After the company’s agent assessed the situation, Barnett’s request was approved – he would be allowed to borrow any amount of money that he requested.

In 1904, Barnett organized the Monroe County Bank, the first official bank in the county. He became its first president, a position he held for forty-eight years. In January of 1952, he be­came chairman of the board, and his son, John Barnett, Jr., was elevated to the presidency.

After creating the bank in Monroeville, Barnett organized banks at Excel and Uriah. He later became president of the Escambia County Bank at Flomaton and of the Peoples Bank at Jones Mill (now Frisco City). As time passed and more and more roads were paved, the need for some of the smaller banks subsided and some of them were liquidated.

In addition to helping farmers receive loans necessary for survival, John Barnett established the J. B. Barnett Fertilizer Company, providing a ready source of cheap fertilizers to help farmers of the area boost crop yields in soil that had become nutrient-poor after many years of use.

In order to supplement his income until his law practice was well established, Barnett also turned to the field he knew best, insurance. He organized the first insurance agency in Monroe County, the Barnett Insurance Agency.

At about the same time, he made contact with Colonel Bertram Lesley Hibbard, a native of Virginia, who had moved to Alabama to practice law. He and Colonel Hibbard soon formed a partnership that lasted until Colonel Hibbard’s death in 1905.

Barnett also helped Monroe County solve the problem of transportation from Monroeville to other areas. The L & N Railroad from Selma to Flomaton had missed Monroeville by about four miles. When the Bear Creek Lumber Company went out of business in 1911, John Barnett and his law partner, L. J. Bugg bought the Manistee and Repton Railroad – originally built to serve the company – and extended the line from Monroeton to Monroeville. This extension linked Monroeville with transportation facilities to the outside world, and Monroeville experienced a new surge of growth. At about this time, Mr. Amasa Coleman Lee moved to Monroeville. He became a partner to Barnett and Bugg, thus making the law firm Barnett, Bugg, and Lee.

John Barnett continued to respond to the problems the farmers of Monroe County faced during the hard years of the 1920s and 1930s. He built a cotton warehouse where the farmers could store their cotton. Through this activity, he became very interested in the cotton warehouse associations, and in 1935 was elected president of the Alabama Bonded Warehouse Association. In 1950 he became president of the National Cotton Compress and Warehouse Association.

John Barnett was always keenly aware of the South’s resources and potential for development – adequate labor supply, raw materials (cotton) at hand for development, and by the 1930s an adequate transportation system. He and his friend from The University of Alabama days, Tom Martin, invited Vanity Fair Mills to locate at Monroeville. The illustrious history of the Vanity Fair enterprise in Monroe County re­flects their endeavors.

Barnett’s contributions to the financial development of the “good land of the good people” he loved extended beyond business and financial enterprises. He was prominent in the Democratic Party; he served as mayor of his city; he held high office in the Masons; and he was a member of the Lions Club.

He chaired the Liberty Loan Drives of World War I and was chairman of the Victory Drives of World War II in his county; he served as Chairman of the Red Cross Drive. He served as President of the Alabama Bankers Association and was a member of the board of directors of the Birmingham Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. He was very much involved in the educational affairs of his community and served the Methodist Church throughout his life.

John Barnett’s earthly life ended on February 16, 1952. He was an outstanding public servant, a lawyer, a banker, and a great Christian leader. He served his day and his generation exceedingly well.

John Anthon Hand

• September 20th, 2021

John Anthon Hand is one of the first two living inductees into the Alabama Business Hall of Fame.

His name is synonymous with the First National Bank of Birmingham, an institution he has faithfully served for four decades. Hand was born in Rome, Georgia, on November 18, 1901. The son of Thomas Oscar Hand and Bertha Maddox Hand, he was one of six children. His father was state manager for the State Mutual Life Insurance Company headquartered in Rome.

Hand attended public elementary and high schools in his native city. During the summers, when he was older, he began work in a bank in Macon, Georgia, filing checks. Upon graduation from high school, he was hired by the Fourth National Bank of Macon for a clerical position. The head teller at Fourth National was a close friend and when a position came open at the Farmer and Merchants Bank in Sylvester, Georgia, he urged young Hand to apply for it. Thus, Hand became the new assistant cashier at the Farmers and Merchants Bank.

After a year in this position, Hand was appointed Assistant National Bank Examiner by the Comptroller of the Currency and assigned to the Sixth Federal Reserve District. He was soon promoted to Senior Assistant National Bank Examiner.

Ellis D. Robb, his immediate supervisor, and Chief National Bank Examiner wrote:

Perhaps in the five years, I have been Chief National Bank Examiner in Atlanta of the Sixth District, there has been no more faithful, efficient assistant than has been John A. Hand.

It is my belief that Mr. Hand will make good at any bank work he may attempt in any bank anywhere.

John Hand was only twenty-six years old and was soon to embark on his long career in Birmingham.

In 1928 the Traders National Bank of Birmingham merged with the American Trust and Savings Bank to form the American-Traders National Bank with John C. Persons as President.

The Sixth Federal Reserve District sent examiners to conduct a routine audit and while the investigation was being held, Persons asked the chief examiner to recommend an auditor for the new bank. The examiner suggested John Hand. Hand accepted the position and moved to Birmingham. Before he could begin work as an auditor he received additional responsibilities. American-Traders National Bank was in the process of acquiring a number of private neighborhood banks in Birmingham and Hand was assigned to oversee the operations of these institutions. Some years later these banks became the first suburban branches of First National.

Following the Stock Market Crash of October 1929, financial institutions across the nation suffered from the ever-deepening depression. In order to protect their customers and assets, Persons suggested a merger of his bank with First National Bank of Birmingham, the city’s largest financial institution. Upon the merger on July 1, 1930, John Hand became

Comptroller at First National. Shortly afterward, he was loaned to the Reconstruction Finance Corporation to examine Alabama banks applying for federal loans.

Meanwhile, other activities consumed Hand’s time. In 1931 he attended Harvard Business School and later the School of Banking at Rutgers University where he graduated in 1936.

The following year he was promoted to Vice President at First National.

In the early 1930s, Hand began the important job of raising a family. Shortly after his arrival in Birmingham, he met Eula Elizabeth Gibson, and on November 1, 1930, they were married. They later became the parents of a daughter, Barbara, and a son, John.

Hand has always been a strong believer in community involvement and has encouraged First National personnel to become involved in civic and charitable activities. He himself has set the example. During the 1940s he was an active member of the Jefferson Hospital Board. He has served as general chairman of the Community Chest fundraising campaign and for two years as President of the Jefferson County Community Chest. He also has been a president of the Birmingham Rotary Club and the Festival of Arts and Vice Chairman of the Salvation Army. Immediately after World War II, he served as treasurer for the “Crusade for Children” drive. As Director and member of the Executive Committee of the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce, Hand has sought to attract new industry and thereby diversify the economy.

Because of his strong commitment to his community, John Hand has received many awards and honors. Among those is induction into Alabama’s Academy of Honor. Educational institutions also have recognized his contributions. In 1961 he was recognized by The University of Alabama for his support of engineering education. Ten years later the University of Alabama in Birmingham awarded him an honorary Doctor of Laws Degree. He was praised as “a banker deeply committed to improving the economic welfare of the community and the well-being of its citizens.” In 1972 he was named to the Board of Visitors of The University’s College of Commerce and Business Administration. Samford University also awarded him a Doctor of Laws Degree.

While continuing his active civic and community work, he was steadily progressing at First National. In 1953 he became Executive Vice President and a Director. In 1956 he was named President and on May 1, 1958, he became Chief Executive Officer.

During Hand’s tenure as Chief Executive Officer, First National Bank underwent an unprecedented expansion, aided by the sound banking philosophy he espoused: First, last and always I think a bank should be conservatively operated. We’ve operated this bank that way for years and years. For a bank to survive, however, it must also be aggressive and its officers must stay in contact with customers. They must make calls. If they do not, customers will be lost.

Under Hand’s guidance, the deposits grew from $326 million in 1958 to more than $780 million in 1972. In 1958 the bank had 13 branches; fourteen years later it had 29. Hand’s leadership has resulted in other significant contributions. One of the most lasting was the completion in 1971 of a new bank building located at Fifth Avenue and Twentieth Street in Birmingham. This impressive structure was a joint venture between Southern National Gas Company and First National Bank. Another significant development was the formation of the Alabama Bancorporation. The planning for this bank holding company was done in the late 1960s under Hand’s guidance. When appropriate federal legislation was passed and applications were approved by the Federal Reserve Board, the First National Bank of Birmingham joined Alabama Bancorporation in February 1972.

Because of his sound leadership, Hand was named Chairman of the Board on January 1, 1968, and on August 1, 1969, he was named Chairman of the Executive Committee. Throughout this period he retained the position of Chief Executive Officer.

Hand’s business abilities resulted in other corporations seeking him as a director. In his long career, he has served as director of some of the following companies: Protective Life Insurance, Alabama Power, Moore-Handley Hardware, Alabama Gas, Engel Mortgage, and Steward Machine. He was also a director of the Birmingham Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.

After forty-four years of banking service, John Hand retired on December 31, 1972, from the day-to-day operations of First National. He still retains several corporate directorships and remained a director with First National until February 1974. Despite the fact that he is retired, Hand visits the bank daily.

Hand’s s contribution to the banking industry, and First National, in particular, is concisely stated in his introduction to a Newcomen Society meeting: “The First National Bank’s success has been due to his personal resourcefulness, his acumen, his sound judgment, direction, and leadership.”

Marion Beirne Spragins

• September 17th, 2021

Marion Beirne Spragins – industrial developer and banker – is synonymous with the development of Huntsville.

Spragins graduated from The University of Alabama with an A.B. degree and began his career as a bookkeeper in the First National Bank of Huntsville, where he worked until he left for service in World War I. He was commissioned as a First Lieutenant in the field artillery in 1917, but because of extensive training reached France only a few months before the Armistice. After his discharge, he returned to Huntsville and married Georgia Lowry. In 1933, amidst the Great Depression, Spragins was elected executive vice president. His bank was one of two banks permitted to re-open after all banks were closed by presidential order. After his father died in 1935, Spragins became president of the bank. Spragins was a leader in the growth of the First National Bank of Huntsville and a leader in the community. He was a member of the Birmingham Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, chairman of the Alabama Bankers Association Legislation Committee, and member of the Advisory Committee to the United States Senate Banking and Currency Committee. From 1946 to 1967, Spragins served as a member of the Third Army Advisory Committee, and for his service received the Outstanding Civilian Service Award for his contributions to the liaison between the Army and the citizenry. Spragins was also closely identified with the establishment and growth of the University of Alabama in Huntsville. In 1963, Spragins was awarded Huntsville’s Distinguished Citizens Award.

John Cecil Persons

• September 16th, 2021

A Birmingham News editorial stated, “Rare indeed is the man who serves so outstandingly in so many ways. John C. Persons was such a man.”

Persons enrolled in The University of Alabama Law School, and after graduation worked for Jones and Penick law firm. After a lengthy courtship, Persons married Elonia Hutchinson and moved to Columbus, Miss. Hoping to continue his law career, Persons moved back to Tuscaloosa in 1915 to establish a law practice. Instead, he bought an interest in a lumber company and soon controlled three others. Persons rebuilt his financial base after World War I by incorporating two new lumber companies. After a series of mergers, Persons served as president of American Traders National Bank. Under Persons’ leadership, the bank survived the Great Depression by merging with First National Bank. When Persons returned after World War II, he was soon promoted to chief executive officer and guided the bank for another decade of growth. Persons served as a Captain in the Army during World War I, earning the Distinguished Service Cross, and as a Major General in World War II, earning the Distinguished Service Medal for his service in the South Pacific. Persons served his community and its youth through affiliations with the Birmingham Board of Education, Junior Achievement, Boys’ Club, American Legion, and Red Cross. Persons served in a professional capacity in the Birmingham Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank and the Advisory Board of the Federal Reserve Bank in Washington.