Adam Dale


Photo from tndar.org

Painting by Archibald M. Willard
 Revolutionary War Soldier

Born:July 14, 1768, Snow Hill, Worcester, MD
Died:October 14, 1851, Hazel Green, Madison County, AL
Buried:Columbia, TN
Father of:Elizabeth Evans Hall Dale

Notes:

•  Son of Thomas Dale who "commanded two companies of 'Minute Men' sent to protect Salisbury, Md., Whig headquarters for that state, from a Tory uprising in 1777." - Roots Web

•  Son of Elisabeth Evans Dale. He had eight siblings listed in Ancestry.com - Ancestry.com

•  Father of:
1. Edward Washington Dale, 1790 - 1840
2. Lemuel Hall Dale, 1794 - 1796
3. Elizabeth Evans Hall Dale, 1795 - 1866
4. Thomas Dale, 1798 - 1820
5. Peggy Hall Dale, 1800 - 1863
6. Margaret Hall Dale, 1800 - 1836
7. Sarah Hill Dale, 1802 - 1876
8. Sophia Woodson Dale, 1805 - 1884
9. Mary Hall Dale, born 1807
10. Nancy Stevenson Dale, 1809 - 1816
11. William Jordon Hall Dale, 1811 - 1830 - Ancestry.com

•  "Adam and his father, Thomas, receive land grants for service and removed to Tennessee in 1797. He later raised, equipped and commanded a company from Smith Co., Tenn., and served under Andrew Jackson in the War of 1812." - Roots Web

•  About 1793 Adam moved to Tennessee's DeKalb County, where he is recognized as that county's first settler. - Roots Web

•  "When a youngster of 12, Dale, had raised a company of boys (home defense) to oppose the progress of Lord Cornwallis through Maryland during the Revolution. Later he commanded a company of 100 men, when General Andrew Jackson was fighting the Indians in and around Huntsville. Dale's company pitched camp near a large spring in Meridianville, some eight miles north of Huntsville" - Parker

•  Adam died while visiting his daughter, Elizabeth, near Hazel Green in 1851 and he was buried in the Jefferies family cemetery behind his daughter's house. (This was the daughter accused of killing six husbands). 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

•  Married Mary Hall, Feb 24, 1790, Worcester, Maryland - Ancestry.com

•  Elizabeth Dale, Adam's daughter, was eventually known as Mrs. Gibbons-Flanigan-Jeffries-High-Brown-Routt. - Editor's Note

•  1850 Census has Adam listed as a household member. The address given is "Second Regiment 33, Madison, Alabama". They were listed at the same residence as their daughter, Elizabeth, the Hazel Green Widow. 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. - Census 1850


Related Links:

•  Ancestry.com - Page owned by lridall4 and requires Ancestry.com membership to view. (Originally found at http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/15152149/person/515257965.)

•  Census 1850 - Paid membership is required to view the census data here. (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.)

•  Huntsville Historical Review - Article: "The Family Graveyard, A Vanishing Landscape" by Dorothy Scott Johnson, The Huntsville Historical Review, Volume 16-7, 1986 and 1987, Page 27.

•  Parker - A roots Web article about Adam's daughter by Price Parker

•  Patriot Database - Alabama's Revolutionary War Soldiers and Patriots Database on the Resources tab of the Alabama Society of the Sons of the American Revolution website.

•  Roots Web - Article transcribed 9/4/1997 from Virgil Carrinton Jones' article in "True Tales of Old Madison County (Alabama)", Johnson Historical Publications. It tells the story of Adam's daughter, Elizabeth Evans Hall Dale. Several of her husbands mysteriously died at her house in Hazel Green. She is known as the Widow of Hazel Green.

•  Alabama Archives - Thomas McAdory Owen's Revolutionary Soldiers in Alabama


The Following Pages Link to this Page:
•  Elizabeth Evans Hall Dale
•  Huntsville Historical Review
•  Patriot Database