He never sought or held public office, but elected officials turned to him often for assistance. He ranked among the richest men in 19th-century Alabama, but his face was unknown to many beyond the banking industry. Estimates of his fortune at the time of his death topped $3 million, most of it in real estate holdings that sprang from his early support of a place called Birmingham.
Josiah Morris was born in 1818, the eldest child of farmers Jeptha and Eliza Morris, along Maryland’s eastern shore. By the age of 15, opportunities in the American South enticed young Morris from his home. He settled first in Columbus, Georgia, under the tutelage of a prominent local businessman. Morris married Sarah Harvey, daughter of a Columbus physician, in 1844. Five years later, the couple relocated to New Orleans, where Morris worked as a commission merchant.
In 1852, Morris arrived in Montgomery and opened his own private banking interest. In business, Morris was generally risk averse. “Conservative” was the descriptor often applied by contemporaries and historians alike to describe his dealings. He directed his investments toward the permanent things, particularly land and its bounties: cotton, timber and iron.
During Reconstruction, the banker lent his name and finances to important railroad ventures. He was an early supporter of the South & North Alabama Railroad, alongside Charles T. Pollard, Daniel Pratt and Charles Linn. Morris’ reputation made him a crucial participant. “More than any other man in Montgomery, he can command the confidence and secure the assistance of the Northern capitalists,” wrote one observer.
Morris was among a select few who saw the potential in a spot of mineral-rich land in Jefferson County’s Jones Valley, where the tracks of the South & North and Alabama & Chattanooga railroads were soon to cross. At the suggestion of his friend John T. Milner, chief engineer of the South & North, Morris agreed to purchase 4,150 acres of land in the valley.
On Dec. 19, 1870, Morris hosted a critical meeting in Montgomery. Located on Commerce Street, the Morris & Co. Bank was a modest, two-story structure. There were certainly more ostentatious buildings in the capital city. Yet few played as large a role in Alabama history. Here, in the city called the “Cradle of the Confederacy,” Alabama’s postwar economic behemoth Birmingham was born. Morris and other interested parties met and organized the Elyton Land Co. They split a combined $200,000 in capital stock into $100 shares, divided among the 10 of them. Morris retained the majority stake of 437 shares, almost 21%. He would eventually own nearly 600 of the original shares in the company.
The men met at the bank again the following month to elect officers and formally transfer the land to their newly incorporated company. They also settled upon the name for their new town: Birmingham, an homage to the English industrial city. Historians differ on whether Morris or Elyton’s first president James Powell suggested the name. The men platted out the streets of the new town and began selling lots on June 1, 1870.
Over time, Morris bought and sold some parcels of sought-after Birmingham land multiple times. In addition, by 1884 his monthly dividends in the Elyton Land Co. were a reported $5,000 per share. His role as a founding father of the Magic City earned him a highly favored status there. “Even during the darkest days of Birmingham, he never wavered in his faith in its grand future,” wrote the editor of the Birmingham Iron-Age.
Some of those days came in 1873, with the overlapping crises of a Birmingham cholera epidemic and a deepening global financial crisis. In the face of both, Morris was resolute. He traded on his good name with bankers in New York to shore up his financial interests in Montgomery and Birmingham, handling promptly all financial transactions through the long, uncertain time.
In 1880, Morris helped launch the City Bank of Birmingham. The new bank’s first cashier, W. J. Cameron, previously worked alongside Morris in Montgomery. A few years later, Morris announced the construction of a $200,000 multi-story building at the corner of First Avenue and 19th Street. The structure was later converted into the luxurious Morris Hotel. It stood until the 1950s.
More than one governor relied upon his financial acumen. During Reconstruction, he backed state bonds with gold and underwrote public works projects. In 1883, when Alabama Treasurer “Honest Ike” Vincent absconded with $250,000 from the state’s coffers, Gov. E. A. O’Neal appealed to Morris’ steadying hand to avoid financial calamity. The banker agreed to purchase $100,000 in state bonds, allaying the fears of the cash-strapped state’s creditors while the matter with Vincent was sorted.
While many residents of Montgomery likely did not know Morris personally, they grew accustomed to reading about his liberal support of local causes. He donated 40 acres of land for the new state fairgrounds, purchased new equipment for local firefighters and funded construction of an eye-care infirmary run by his son-in-law, Dr. Benjamin Baldwin. His greatest act of munificence in Montgomery came in 1888 with a large addition to his beloved St. John’s Episcopal Church. Upon his wife’s death from pneumonia the following year, Morris had an elaborate new altarpiece built for the church in her honor.
A paralytic stroke befell Morris in 1889. Though he eventually resumed many of his duties, he did so haltingly, without the customary vigor of his long working life. Morris died at his home in Montgomery on March 9, 1891, at the age of 72.
Remembrances praised his sagacity and philanthropy. One editor likened Morris to a “Modern Aladdin who extracted millions from the earth.” At the time of his death, Morris remained the Elyton Land Co.’s largest shareholder. Today, Morris Avenue, named in his honor, still cuts its way through the land he purchased more than 150 years ago, a purchase that cleared the way for the rise of an industrial giant.
Historian Scotty E. Kirkland is a freelance contributor to Business Alabama. He lives in Wetumpka.
This article appears in the December 2024 issue of Business Alabama.
