A H istoryM adison Countyof and Incidentally of N o r t h Alabama 1732-1840 By Judge Thomas Jones(1829-1894) Taylor Edited w ith a n Introduction Byand W .Addis Stanley S. HH oole oole A History of Madison County and Incidentally of North Alabama 1732-1840 By Judge Thomas Jones Taylor (1829 - 1894) Edited with an Introduction By W. Stanley Hoole and Addie S. Hoole CONFEDERATE PUBLISHING COMPANY University, Alabama Copyright © 1976 by W. Stanley Hoole and Addie S. Hoole Contents Introduction 5 Part I The Early History, 1732—1820 1. The Beginnings, 1732-1800 9 2. Indian Cessions 12 3. First Settlers in the County 15 4. Settlement by Pioneers, 1805 to 1809 18 5. Pioneer Life 22 6. Survey and Sale of Public Lands in 1809 25 7. Settlers in the Year 1809 29 8. Founding of Huntsville 32 9. Early Settlers in Huntsville 36 10. Madison County in the W ar of 1812 40 11. Land Sales in 1818 44 12. Tennessee Valley from 1818 to 1820 48 Part II The Later History, 1820—1840 1. Madison County in 1820 52 3 4 Contents 2. County and State Officers to 1823 55 3. Roads and Transportation 59 4. Election Districts and Muster Grounds 63 5. Clearing the Lands 66 6. Madison County, 1823 to 1828 70 7. Merchants of Madison County, 1820 to 1830 74 8. Removal of the Indians 78 9. New Madison 82 10. Land Sales of July, 1830 86 11. Land Sales of October, 1830—Gurleysville and Collier’s 89 12. Land Sales of October, 1830—Poplar Ridge and Vienna 94 13. Public Men from 1830 to 1835 98 14. Madison County, 1835 and 1836—The Texas Revolution 101 15. Madison County to 1840 105 16. Representative Men from 1830 to 1840 108 17. Huntsville, 1830 to 1840 113 Appendix: Early History of Huntsville By Thomas W. Jones 117 Introduction Thomas Jones Taylor, author of the history which appears verbatim below, was born in Talladega, Alabama on July 2, 1829. When a small boy, he moved with his parents, Mai and Ann Johnston (McCartney) Taylor, to Madison County. In 1850 he married Miss Lockey Thompson Douglass, daughter of John and Catherine Augusta (Nowlin) Douglass, and after teaching school for a few years was in 1858 elected surveyor of Madison County. In January, 1862 he enlisted in the Confederate States Army as a second lieutenant (later captain) of Co. K, Forty-ninth Alabama Infantry Regiment. He was captured at Port Hudson, Louisiana and held prisoner until the end of the war. Upon his return to Huntsville, Madison County, he again served as county surveyor, 1868-1871, and was after­ wards elected to the positions of tax collector, clerk of the County Court, and in 1886 probate judge, a post he held until his death on November 12, 1894.1 Judge Taylor’s original manuscript of approximately sixty-five thousand words, written in the early 1880’s, was poorly organized, replete with hand-drawn surveyor’s maps and field notes, and obviously unsuitable for publication.2 Entitled “The History of Madison County,” it rather fully brought the narrative to 1840, then sketchily to about 1870, and concluded with a wordy, rambling autobiography. For publication purposes the man­ uscript was skillfully edited, reduced to about fifty thousand words, divided into chapters and two parts, and re-titled “Early History...” (twelve chap­ ters) and “Later History of Madison County, and, Incidentally of North Alabama” (seventeen chapters). It was wisely concluded with the events of 1840.3 Whether Judge Taylor alone was responsible for these signif­ icant revisions is not known—but it is quite likely that W. P. Newman, the experienced editor of the Huntsville Weekly Independent, was involved. In any case, the shorter and muchly improved version—the one here pub­ lished in book form for the first time—appeared in that newspaper in weekly installments between August 31, 1883 and May 22, 1884. Locating and assembling the twenty-nine chapters has in itself been an interesting experience. Unfortunately, there is no complete file of the Weekly Independent for 1883-1884.4 The partial files in the Elbert H. Parsons Public Law Library, an affiliate of the Huntsville Public Library, and The University of Alabama Library yielded only twenty-three chapters. The other six were come upon in a somewhat curious and circuitous manner. Several years ago the editors secured from Miss Ida Hamner of Attalla, 5 6 Introduction Alabama, now deceased, a miscellaneous collection of handwritten notebooks formerly owned by her brother, the late Dr. George W. Hamner, a long-time friend and aide of Dr. Thomas M. Owen, first director of the Alabama State Department of Archives and History. Hamner, an ardent collector of Alabamiana, apparently unable to acquire a complete file of copies of the Weekly Independent containing Judge Taylor’s history, borrowed the papers and meticulously copied each of the chapters in long- hand in one of his notebooks. Had it not been for his labors in thus saving the six missing chapters, this complete version of Judge Taylor’s history could never have been published in its entirety. 5 In his Bibliography of Alabama (Washington, 1898) Dr. Owen not only gave credit to Dr. Hamner for his assistance, but also confirmed the fact that the author of the history (which had been published in the Weekly In­ dependent as having been written “By a Reliable Scribe”) was indeed Judge Thomas Jones Taylor. Then he added: A native of Madison, being a grandson of an emigrant of 1809 (four years after the first permanent white settlement), a teacher and public official, the writer [Judge Taylor] was eminently qualified for this work. In its preparation he made use of traditions, books, and public records. The style is dignified and philosophical, and the arrangement and method of treatment evidence careful preparation. These chapters deserve a better place than the files of a newspaper, and ought to be reprinted. 1. Thomas M. Owen, History of Alabama... (Chicago, 1921), IV, 1652; Willis Brewer, Alabama: Her History, Resources, and Public Men... (Montgomery, 1872), 662-663. 2. A typescript of the original manuscript (owned by Judge Taylor’s granddaughters [see n. 5, below]) was made in 1940 by WPA workers for the Huntsville Public Library. 3. In editing the newspaper version it was found that Chapters 13-15 of the “Early History...” were reprinted in the “Later History....” Inasmuch as they obviously belong, chronologically, in the latter, they have been deleted from the former, reducing the “ Early History...” from its original fifteen to twelve chapters. 4. Rhoda C. Ellison, History and Bibliography of Alabama Newspapers... (University, 1954), 85-86. Ellison also suggested that W. P. Newman was editor, although his name does not appear on the masthead of the paper in 1883-1884. 5. The editors are grateful to Mr. Elbert Watson, director of the Huntsville Public Library; Mr. William Sanford, librarian of the Elbert H. Parsons Public Law Library; Mr. James Record, chairman of the Madison County Commission; Mr. Milo B. Howard, director of the Alabama State Department of Archives and History; Mrs. Grace T. Powell and Miss Frances Taylor, granddaughters of Judge Taylor, of Huntsville; Mr. Shelby P. Taylor, grandson, Tarrant, Ala.; Robert G. Jones, great-grandson, Huntsville; and Mrs. Betty Taylor Benson, Madison, Ala., great-great-niece, for their generous assistance in the making of this book. (Four other surviving grandchildren of Judge Taylor are Mrs. B. B. Clarkson, Lexington, Va.; Mrs. C. K. Clarke, Madison, Ga.; Douglass P. Wingo, Birmingham Ala.; and Mr. Gus Wingo, address unavailable.) Introduction 7 Needless to say, the writers consider themselves fortunate in being able to fulfill Dr. Owens’ seventy-eight-year-old wish by making available in a single volume Judge Taylor’s valuable ninety-three-year-old history. In so doing they have taken the editorial liberty of entitling the work A History of Madison County and Incidentally of North Alabama, 1732-1840 and of adding as an appendix an entirely separate essay, written by Thomas W. Jones (but believed to have been based on Judge Taylor’s work) and pub­ lished in the Huntsville Weekly Mercury on March 27, 1901. University, Alabama W. Stanley Hoole and Addie S. Hoole Judge Thomas Jones Taylor (1829— 1894) PART I The Early History of Madison County And Incidentally of North Alabama Chapter 1 — The Beginnings, 1732-1800 The States of Alabama and Mississippi south of the thirty-first parallel of latitude were included in the charter of General Oglethorpe and others granted in the year 1732. This charter was surrendered to the crown in the year 1752, and the government of the whole was regal until the revolu­ tionary war. In the treaty of 1783 this territory was formally ceded by Great Britain to the United States, and was claimed by the State of Georgia until the year 1802, when it was ceded to the General Government. The United States while claiming the supervision and control of the Indian tribes that occupied this territory, yet acknowledged their claim to the terri­ tory occupied by them and ultimately extinguished their title by treaty and purchase. But before the Indian titles were extinguished and before the cession by the State of Georgia, corporations were formed that induced the Legislature of the State of Georgia, during the session of 1795-96, to sell them nearly all of the State of Alabama and Mississippi. As this purchase included Madison county and as the first white persons who claimed a large portion of old Madison county, including the present city of Hunts­ ville, derived their title from one of these corporations, I propose to give a brief sketch of this interesting episode of our early history.