16 comments

  1. Jay Stoves

    Matthew Layne I think this is the man President Trump was talking about.

    1. Matthew Layne

      Indubitably! 😀

  2. Scott Powers

    So the “New York firm” paid 50 large for something they could not use as the Janney coupler, invented by Eli Janney in 1873 had already been adopted as standard.

  3. Rose Battle

    That is remarkable!

  4. Judy Higginbotham

    I expect there were many of them here. This was agricultural area.

    1. Alabama Pioneers

      He was an inventor. That is how he made his fortune. You can click on the picture to read the article.

  5. Harriet Rickman McCombs

    Pinson had plantations???

  6. Angie

    “The “permanent handicap of illiteracy, in addition to injudicious and unwise management practically ruined his career.”
    Yeah I bet

  7. Lori Adams

    The EP only applied to the specific states and did not actually free anyone, the 13th amendment did that.

    1. Mary Margaret Fife Kyser

      Lori Adams and the slaves really freed themselves post war

    2. Lori Adams

      Mary Margaret Fife Kyser Yes, the yanks didn’t care if they starved they had to mostly fend for themselves and many were unequipped to do so. Sad.

  8. Gail Bryson Simmons

    Ricky Simmons

  9. Robert Bradley

    Former slave who settled in Birmingham? The city did not exist until after the Civil War.

    1. Brian DesRochers

      Maybe he settled many years after the war. Misleading title I think.

    2. Brian DesRochers

      Those pesky little details….

  10. Clint Hathcock

    Why don’t someone try to locate his grave? Or at least get him a marker or plaque at the cemetery?