CHOLLET BERNEY, the popular and successful banker of Bessemer, Ala., was born at Montgomery, November 14, 1847, and educated there. He entered the Confederate service in the fall of 1864, as a boy. After the war, he was employed by the Western railway, of Alabama, and was located at Montgomery until 1878, when he went to Meridian, Miss., in the employ of the East Tennessee, Virginia & Georgia railroad, remaining there until 1887, in which year he came to Bessemer and organized the Berney Bros. Bank, and when that institution was changed to a state bank, he became its president. This was changed, in 1890, to the First National bank, of which Mr. Berney is still president. He is one of the directors and the manager of the Bessemer street railway company and the Berney real estate company, of Bessemer. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, and affiliates with the Presbyterian church. He was married in December, 1881, to Anna Brook Barrett, daughter of Dr. Junius Barrett, of Gainesvile, Ala., and to the union was born one child, Anna Brook Berney. Mr. Berney’s wife died in April, 1883.
Source: [Anonymous], Memorial Record of Alabama (Madison, Wis.: Brant & Fuller, 1893), p. 248.