Brewton, AL news and local guide

The Civil War cut the rail lines and damaged the small lumber mills, but residents rebuilt, starting a school and new businesses. In the 1870s European demand for lumber set off a boom, and the Conecuh–Escambia river system became a timber highway to the Gulf. Pollard had been chosen as the county seat in 1868, but county voters moved it to Brewton by 1880. Brewton was incorporated as a town on February 13, 1885, and the next year a devastating fire swept the town, the first of several that residents rebuilt after. Brewton was once called "the richest little town in the South." Its high income came from a handful of timber barons who arrived late in the 19th century to cut the pine forests, among them the McMillan, Lovelace and Miller families, who built grand homes along Belleville and Evergreen avenues. T. R. Miller High School is named for Thomas Richard Miller, a timber baron and town father who helped fund it, and Jefferson Davis Community College, now Coastal Alabama Community College Brewton, opened here in 1964. Sources Encyclopedia of Alabama: Brewton Wikipedia: Brewton, Alabama