Braxton Bragg Comer (November 7, 1848 – August 15, 1927) was an American politician who served as the 33rd Governor of Alabama from 1907 to 1911, and a United States Senator in 1920. As governor, he achieved railroad reform, lowering business rates in Alabama to make them more competitive with other states. He increased funding for the public school system, resulting in more rural schools and high schools in each county for white students and a rise in the state's literacy rate. Comer was a planter and businessman before and after entering politics as a Democrat. He inherited the Comer family plantation, which was devoted to corn and cotton production. He had an interest in the Comer mines near Birmingham known as the Eureka Mines. In 1897 he invested $10,000 with the Trainer family, who intended to develop textile mills in the state, and he was appointed president of Avondale Mills, which he developed in Birmingham, serving in that role until he died in 1927. Early life and education Comer was born on November 7, 1848, in Spring Hill, Alabama. He was the fourth son of John Fletcher and Catharine (Drewry) Comer. As planters, Comer's parents had built their wealth based on enslaved labor for their cotton plantation. B. B. Comer began his education at the age of ten under the tutelage of E. N. Brown. In 1864 Comer went to the University of Alabama, but in April 1865, was forced to leave when General John T. Croxton's troops burned the university. He enrolled at the University of Georgia in Athens, where he joined the Phi Kappa Literary Society. He transferred to Emory and Henry College in Virginia, where he graduated in 1869 with AB and AM degrees. Marriage and family In 1872 Comer married Eva Jane Harris of Cuthbert, Georgia. He built a large house for them at Comer Station, Barbour County. He and his wife remained married until her passing on March 6, 1920, the day after he had been appointed Senator by Governor Kilby. Early business career Following graduation, Comer returned to Spring Hill and helped to manage the family plantation. He primarily grew corn and cotton on what became a plantation. He continued to operate his Barbour County plantation, with his brother John managing it, after he moved his family to Anniston in east central Alabama in 1885. Comer's brother, J.W. Comer, operated the family's plantation