Using his native intelligence and the resources at hand, Thomas R. Miller opened the door for the lumber industry.
Miller, after the Civil War, quickly recognized the need to break the south’s total dependence on agriculture. He began to produce hewn timber as an alternative source of income. In late 1868, Miller married Mary Elizabeth Foshee. By 1870, Miller had accumulated enough capital to purchase a small grist and sawmill. Miller took on a partner, and the enterprise became Miller and Foshee. The partners operated the mill successfully until 1887 when they decided to sell out and invest in a larger mill. Miller, taking with him $50,000, invested in a mill that became known as Blacksher-Miller Lumber Company. Miller moved to Tennessee planning to raise horses. However, his plans were changed when he was approached to purchase a much larger timber company for more than a half-million dollars, which became Cedar Creek Mill Company at Brewton. Shortly after arriving in Brewton, his wife died in childbirth. Two years later he married Alice Collins. Miller became one of the first to advocate and follow good forestry practices by practicing selective cutting. Miller’s success at Brewton was an entry to other ventures. Over the next fifteen years, Miller acquired a sawmill, a cotton oil mill, an ice plant, and organized Citizens Bank in Brewton where he served as president until his death. By the end of the first decade of the twentieth century, Miller had built a small sawmill into a timber empire.
