July 9, 1804

William Phineas Browne, a pioneer of Alabama’s coal industry, was born in Vermont. An attorney by trade, Browne came to Alabama to work on a construction contract for the Tennessee Canal in Muscle Shoals. He later served as a state representative for Mobile before relocating to Shelby County. In 1851, Browne discovered three significant seams of coal on his property, and began mining with the use of slave labor. He eventually developed the state’s first systematic underground coal mines, and in 1862, supplied the Confederacy with 4,000 tons of coal. Browne ended his businesses in 1867 due to disagreements with business partners, failing health and losses sustained by Civil War destruction.

Read more at Encyclopedia of Alabama.

Lawyer and politician William Phineas Browne (1804-1869) was also an Alabama coal industry pioneer. In 1851, Browne established mining operations near Montevallo and by the late 1850s was delivering coal in the thousands of tons. He also built Brighthope, an iron-processing blast furnace and forge, on the Little Cahaba River. (From Encyclopedia of Alabama, Courtesy of Alabama Department of Archives and History)

For more on Alabama’s Bicentennial, visit Alabama 200.