Elizabeth Evans Hall Dale
Elizabeth Evans Hall Dale (Katherine Bone / Blogspot.com) |
| Born: | October 28, 1795, Worcester, Maryland |
| Died: | May 7, 1866, Marshall County, Mississippi |
| Daughter of: | Adam Dale |
| Wife of: | Rev. Samuel G. Gibbons |
Notes:
• We included her under her maiden name. She had six husbands and in the end, her name would have been Mrs. Elizabeth Evans Hall Dale Gibbons-Flanagan-Jeffries-High-Brown-Routt. She was also known as The Black Widow of Hazel Green. Many of her husbands died under mysterious circumstances and rather prematurely. - Editor's Note
• Adam Dale, Elizabeth's father, died while visiting her near Hazel Green in 1851 and he was buried in the Jefferies family cemetery behind his daughter's house. After Adam's death, his widow, Mary, "returned to Columbia to live with her daughter, a Mrs. Vaught. Elizabeth's troubles disturbed her aged mother almost to the breaking point. The mother was unhappy about her husband being buried in such an unfriendly place. To please his troubled mother-in-law, Vaught had Dale's body removed from the little graveyard at Hazel Green to Columbia. When Dale's body was exhumed, It was found that it had petrified and turned dark. This unnatural state gave fuel to the rumor that poor ole dad had gone the way of the husbands." - Parker
• While the census form only provides raw data, it is interesting to overlay this information on top of the story of the unusual deaths.
The household members are listed as:
- Willis Rout, 48
- Elizabeth Rout, 55
- Adam Dale, 81
- Mary Dale, 78
- William Jeffries, 16
Points of interest:
- Adam and his wife Mary are listed in the same household as their daughter, the Hazel Green Widow. This is interesting because reports suggest they owned land in both Alabama and Tennessee. At their advanced ages, maybe they had come to live with Elizabeth.
- Adam died in 1851. At this census Adam was not far from his death. While his death is sometimes included in the list of mystery deaths, his old age could also be an explanation.
- Willis and Elizabeth Rout are listed as members of the household. Willis was Elizabeth's sixth husband (married May 11, 1848) and the last to die before she left Madison County and the Jeffries plantation. Most accounts say he died soon after they were married. But at this census they had been married over a year.
- The ages listed for Willis (48) and Elizabeth (55) suggest Willis was seven years younger than his wife.
- A sixteen year old named William Jeffries is listed as a member of this house. Elizabeth had two children William A. and Mary Elizabeth they were both from the Jeffries marriage. The daughter's birth occurred November 8, 1837, and her death August 13, 1844. She would not have been listed on the 1850 census (she was buried on the Jeffries plantation) but William would have been listed. He was the son of Alexander Jeffries, the early settler in Madison County, the original owner of the land later developed as a plantation, and the third husband of Elizabeth. - 1850 Census
• The dates change in various accounts. - Editor's Note
Related Links:
• 1850 Census - Census is viewed through an Ancestry.com paid subscription. (Originally found at http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?db=1850usfedcenancestry&h=19031778&ti=0&indiv=try&gss=pt&ssrc=pt_t15152149_p515257965_kpidz0q3d515257965z0q26pgz0q3d32768z0q26pgPLz0q3dpid.)
• Ancestry.com - Page owned by MikeandEileenR and can be viewed only with an Ancestry.com paid subscription. (Originally found at http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/35536415/person/18822454552.)
• Bone - Article titled "Dead Husbands Tell No Tales?" by Katherine Bone .
• Carney - The Way It Was: The Other Side of Huntsville's History, by Tom Carney, 1994, page 93.
• Gregg - A Crane's Foot (or Pedigree) of Branches of the Gregg, Stuart, Robertson, Dobbs and Allied Families compiled by E. Stuart Gregg, Jr., 1975, page 129.
• Haunted Locations - Story of Elizabeth and the Routt Mansion with map of its location. (Originally found at http://www.mystery411.com/Landing_routtmansion.html.)
• Huntsville Times - Article titled "Elizabeth Routt: Did She Murder Her Six Husbands Or Was She Victim of Misfortune?" by John Park, Huntsville Times Staff Writer, February 26, 1976. (Originally found at http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~tnsmith/scenes/theblackwidow.htm.)
• Parker - Article titled "Notorious Lady Of Hazel Green-Murderess -- Or Legend Victim" by Price Parker.
• Reeves - Wicked North Alabama, by Jacquelyn Proctor Reeves, 2009, page 72.
• Roots Web - Article transcribed 9/4/1997 from Virgil Carrington Jones' article in "True Tales of Old Madison County (Alabama)", Johnson Historical Publications.
The Following Pages Link to this Page:
• Adam Dale
• Rev. Samuel G. Gibbons