The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-02-21
For Good of
 the Community

ZA \ There remain many who have the right to style themselves pioneers, but the sturdy few who blazed the trail are in spirit land, their bodies on Oak Hill.
 When Major Milner joined that host last Saturday evening the band was near ly complete The roll had been finished and they had given account of their~stew- ardship as architects plotting the con version of corn and cotton field into a great city.
 Reviewing what these men did their descendants either in blood or in the duty to follow up their groundwork have all the inspiration that men need to carry on delegated task.
 The city was laid out into broad ana straight thoroughfares. From whereso- ever the stranger comes he says: What beautiful wide streets you have here in Birmingham" It was not an age of broad streets when Birmingham was mapped out. It was vision that guided Milner and Barker in drawing the lines.
 There did not seem much use in the early days for belt line There were no warehouses along the stretch of the Birmingham Belt, but Miner, Caldwell, i, Troy Northington, Baldwin and that kind of men saw the Birmingham of to- day. Josiah Morris sensed it. A shreWA and stern banker he was, but he had the vision. Some of them barely saw the belt line completed before they went to the other side, but they had looked into the future and pronounced it good piece of work
 Nothing to the south of the corn and cotton field but rugged hillsides covered with forests. Milner and his engineers climbed the hills glimpsed the beautiful curves and Highland Avenue came forth. The world knows no prettier residence boulevard.
 These men were Christians and church, goers One of the first acts was free gift of sites to the denominations repre- sented in the city The church of the Ad- vent, St. Pauls, First Baptist and First Presbyterian churches stand on these sites, the First Methodist church having moved from it's original location.
 These men had been soldiers and hunt CTS, planters; they knew the value of the open. They dedicated Woodrow Wilson and East and West parks to the city in perpetuity. In generations to come they Will Do CdllCu DlcSSCu LOI IdVlIlS S0t dSlQG these breathing places and fortified them against encroachment
 No prettier spot anywhere than the site of the Country club. That was old Lake view park, another handiWork of Miner and those others.
 They needed water and they got it from two healthful sources. The system was so we'll thought out that there has been nothing done to the original except extend and develop.
 They realized the value of the railroad connections. It was day when men still shrank from the clang of locomotive bells and the thunderous grind of freight cars and cities forced the railroads to skirt their boundaries rather than enter their sacred precincts. The Miner crowd made the railroad right of way the city's north and south boundary line. In so do- ing they laid the foundation of Birning- hams distributing advantages.
 And they were gentle and unassuming men, Thew did not brag, but they did things. The men in charge of Birming- ham today would do we'll to adopt their vision and thoroughness as their stand ard.