Alexander Hays Gilbreath
|
Early merchant
Notes:
• Son of Thomas Galbraith (Gilbreath) 1751 - 1829 and Elizabeth Hays 1761 - 1839. - Ancestry.com
• Gilbreath sometimes spelled Galbreath or Guildbreath. - Record II
• Documentation is available showing Alexander Gilbreath in Madison County by at least 1808. - Record II
• "On December 23, 1809, a commission to select a site for the first public buildings and to select the county seat was appointed by the Governor. William Dickson, Edward Ward, Louis Winston, Alexander Gilbreath and Peter Perkins, composing the Commission, were authorized to acquire 30 to 100 acres and lay out in half acre lots, reserving three acres for public buildings. The lots were to be sold and the proceeds used for constructing the public buildings. The town was to be called Twickenham and was laid out by surveyor John Coffee, after the commission selected the site of the town on July 5, 1810. LeRoy Pope, James Jackson and William P. Anderson, owners, employed Coffee. Pope acquired the others interests and sold the townsite to the commissioners. Because of this, Pope is referred to as the "Father of Huntsville" ." - Record I
• "About one year after Madison County was created, the Mississippi Territory legislature, on December 23, 1809, provided for the 'Town of Twickenham' to be laid out in 1/2 acre lots, and the Governor appointed William Dickson, Edward Ward, Louis Winston, Alexander Gilbreath and Peter Perkins as Commissioners to lay out the town and to sell lots. Prior to that time the community had been known as Hunt's Spring.
In July of 1810, the town commissioners voted to select Twickenham as the County seat and on July 4 sold the first lot. The property for the town was secured from LeRoy Pope who actually didn't get his patent finalized on the land until February 3, 1815. He deeded the property to the Town Commissioners on September 1, 1815. The area is located in Latitude 34?40'44" , and is 612 feet above sea level.
On November 25, 1811, the legislature changed the name of the town to Huntsville in honor of John Hunt, its first settler, and then, on December 9, 1811, an act was passed incorporating Huntsville. It thus became the first incorporated town in what is now Alabama. The 1811 act provided that five trustees would be elected on the first Monday in February 1812. They were to have one year terms. This act is considered Huntsville's first charter. The act further had provided that all free white male inhabitants above 21 could vote. The trustees were to superintend the police of the town by passing such laws, not contrary to the law of the United States, or the Territory, as they might think proper for 'well government and for suppression of nuisances, laying off and repairing of the streets, and assessment of such tax as they might feel proper, not exceeding $200.' A constable was to be appointed to receive taxes.
An act of November 29, 1815 was passed, amending the 1811 act setting up government, and established a number of activities not listed before. This is not considered to be a new charter, as it merely amended the 1811 act. The 1815 act, stating that the town government would be the same as the town of St. Stephens, continued five trustees for one year terms. One of the five was selected as President by the board and would have Justice of the Peace powers. The Trustees were required to publish ordinances in a local paper and were given authority to establish roads, to appoint a Clerk, and a Clerk of the Market. A Constable, Treasurer, Assessor and Collector were established, to be elected by the people. The official title of this governing body was 'The President and Trustees of the Town of Huntsville' . The Trustees were given the power to levy, assess and collect such sums of money as they thought necessary for the supply of the town, not to exceed 12 cents on each $100 of taxable property, unless it was agreed on by the town freeholders, landholders and householders. They were authorized to levy a tax on carts, drays, wagons, and on retailers of spirituous liquors.
Three vacancies having occurred in the five member commission group that was selected in 1809, the Alabama legislature, on December 16, 1819, passed an act that appointed John Read, Henry Stokes and Jesse Searcy to fill the vacancies, probably being Dickson, Ward and Gilbreath. This act was passed as town lots were still being sold by the Town Commissioners. The town limits were established as 1/4 mile square by an act of December 14, 1819." - Record II
• "In December 1809, the Governor of the Mississippi Territory appointed a committee comprised of William Dickson, Edward Ward, Lewis Winston, Alex Gilbreath and Peter Perkins to select a site for the county seat and to purchase 30 acres to establish the town and construct the necessary buildings. Three of those acres were to be used for public buildings and the others divided into half acre lots, to be sold and those funds used for construction of the courthouse and jail. Placement of the public section was important in every settlement since it determined the center of activity and the best chance for profit from land sales. Property owners always competed for the prize." For the next several pages, this source, continues describing the arrangements and alliances. - HMCHS
• "Before the land sales Huntsville was a straggling village of squatters, living on government land and in the rude log cabins. The settlement was Before the land sales scattered along the table lands from Pope's Hill to the big spring, and there was nothing to show where the village commenced or ended. Alexander Gilbreath had a trading-house or store near the spring, about the corner of Gates and Henry streets. He appears to have been the first merchant in the new settlement, and after the city was laid out he and James White went into partnership and did a large business about the year 1811-12." - Hoole
• "Some time during the year 1810, Alexander Gilbreath opened a mercantile establishment at the corner of Gates and Henry streets, and about a year later formed a partnership with James White. This firm enjoyed a large and lucrative business for many years." - Betts
• "Disorderly conduct for whites was punishable by a fine of up to $50, while slaves could receive a maximum of 39 lashes. As early as 1811 John and Louis Winston, Calvin and Luther Morgen, Alex Gilbreath, Dillon Blevins, Gabriel Moore, and others were charged with assault and battery. " - Stephens
• "Second Major Alexander Gilbreath, one of the enumerated squatters waiting to enter the county legally." - Rohr
• "With this continued influx of people who required law and order in the eastern lands of the territory, Governor Williams made the initial militia assignments. (The Governor was of course, Commander-in-Chief.) He appointed Nicholas Perkins to head the newly formed Mississippi 7th Regiment, and William H. Winston, Adjutant. Stephen Neal was appointed 1st Major; Alexander Gilbreath became 2nd Major. The first Madison County-wide muster was held on October 29, 1810. To add his formal approval, the new Governor, David Holmes, attended the grand ceremonies on the muster field, most likely on the flats below the Big Spring. These military appointees were extraordinary men. Well educated, they seemed driven to take advantage of what lay before them - land, progress, and, perhaps with luck, wealth." - Rohr
• "Perhaps it was already becoming too crowded in Madison County. Gilbreath purchased only 39 acres in the local land sales before he moved to the Red Hill area of what would become Marshall County. There he married Polly Brown, half-sister of Catherine Brown. Catherine, a Cherokee educated at Brainerd, Tennessee, became a legendary teacher. (The sisters later taught Cherokee girls at Creek Path School.) In Marshall County, Gilbreath purchased over 360 acres and by 1840 owned 13 slaves. Gilbreath died in 1860 at the age of 80 and was interred in the family cemetery. His wife, Polly, was not buried there with him, however. At the time of the Cherokee Indian Removal, Polly made the trek to Oklahoma with many others. Alexander, according to family stories, was unable to join them because of his great size, too large for a horse or the carriage, and he remained in Marshall County." - Rohr
• Two entries were logged in a Family Forum chat:
1.) "A Polly Brown, daughter of John Brown and Watee (Cherokee), attended the Brainerd Mission School in the early 1800's. Her siblings included Richard, Capt. John, Catherine, David, Edward, Susan, Alexander, and Walter Webber. She is listed in some of the school's data as Polly Gilbreath, married to a wicked white man. (That's a quote!) The Brainerd Mission was located just southeast of Chickamauga, Tennessee-almost in Georgia. These Brown's were connected to Creek Path and Willstown in Alabama. I believe Polly went to Arkansas with her father in 1822." 2.) "Polly supposedly left Alexander because of his meanness and left on the trail, stopping in Ark." - Family Forum
• "An old Cherokee Chief, named Black Fox, died in the north of our county (Blount County), and was buried in an old mound; and in digging his grave, the Indians found some pieces of lead ore. This trivial discovery was magnified and circulated in Madison Count, and many intelligent persons in the county believed a lead mine really existed, at, or near the grave of the old Chief. This opinion became so strong, that Alexander Gilbreath, who then resided in Huntsville, was induced to visit the grave of Black Fox. His search there, proving unsuccessful.... Mr. George Fields, at that time fifty or sixty years old, informed him that the Indians knew of no lead mines nearer than those of Missouri and Illinois, and gave it as his opinion, that the lead found in the grave of Black Fox, had been brought from one of those States. John Gunter, (another old inhabitant of the valley, who had been brought up among the Chickasaws, and spent all his life with the Indians,) gave the same opinion, as to the pieces of lead which had been found in different parts of the county, viz: that they had been brought by the Indians from the northern mines. These two persons informed Mr. Gilbreath, that as far back as Indian memory extended, it was the custom of the Creeks to cross the Tennessee river near Deposit, (Baird's Bluff) and make long hunting expeditions, annually to the north, bringing with them, on their return, lead ore. - That the settling of Tennessee by the whites was a great obstacle in their way to the mines - particularly to those of Rock river. - That the Indians had then, in order to reach the mines, to bear lower down the Tennessee river, and that as the whites of Tennessee continued to extend their settlements westward, the difficulties in the way of the Creeks to the mines, were continually increasing. To this account, it may be added, that a company of Creeks, on a returning expedition of the above kind, murdered two or three white families, which led to the Indian war of 1812, at the close of which, they were finally barred from the mines by treaty." - George Powell
• He left a large estate to his brothers and sisters in Alabama. He had no children. - Hisdogbo
• Polly Brown, his wife, "was a wealthy Indian girl who, when her people were removed to Oklahoma Territory, abandoned her wealthy holdings in Alabama and accompanied her people." - Hisdogbo
• "Alexander Hays Gilbreath married Polly Brown, daughter of Chief John Brown of the Creek Path area in Al., Polly siblings were Catherine, David and Nancy. Alexander was also known as Col. Gilbreath. it's told that Polly left him because of his meanness, leaving supposedly on the trail of tears, she died somewhere in ARK." - esanala
Related Links:
The Following Pages Link to this Page:
• Betts
• HMCHS
• Record I
• Record II
• Rohr
• TVGS
| Nickname: | Alex |
| Born: | August 26, 1780, Bedford, Virginia |
| Died: | January 17, 1860, Guntersville, Marshall County, AL |
| Buried: | Family Cemetery, Marshall County, Alabama |
Notes:
• Son of Thomas Galbraith (Gilbreath) 1751 - 1829 and Elizabeth Hays 1761 - 1839. - Ancestry.com
• Gilbreath sometimes spelled Galbreath or Guildbreath. - Record II
• Documentation is available showing Alexander Gilbreath in Madison County by at least 1808. - Record II
• "On December 23, 1809, a commission to select a site for the first public buildings and to select the county seat was appointed by the Governor. William Dickson, Edward Ward, Louis Winston, Alexander Gilbreath and Peter Perkins, composing the Commission, were authorized to acquire 30 to 100 acres and lay out in half acre lots, reserving three acres for public buildings. The lots were to be sold and the proceeds used for constructing the public buildings. The town was to be called Twickenham and was laid out by surveyor John Coffee, after the commission selected the site of the town on July 5, 1810. LeRoy Pope, James Jackson and William P. Anderson, owners, employed Coffee. Pope acquired the others interests and sold the townsite to the commissioners. Because of this, Pope is referred to as the "Father of Huntsville" ." - Record I
• "About one year after Madison County was created, the Mississippi Territory legislature, on December 23, 1809, provided for the 'Town of Twickenham' to be laid out in 1/2 acre lots, and the Governor appointed William Dickson, Edward Ward, Louis Winston, Alexander Gilbreath and Peter Perkins as Commissioners to lay out the town and to sell lots. Prior to that time the community had been known as Hunt's Spring.
In July of 1810, the town commissioners voted to select Twickenham as the County seat and on July 4 sold the first lot. The property for the town was secured from LeRoy Pope who actually didn't get his patent finalized on the land until February 3, 1815. He deeded the property to the Town Commissioners on September 1, 1815. The area is located in Latitude 34?40'44" , and is 612 feet above sea level.
On November 25, 1811, the legislature changed the name of the town to Huntsville in honor of John Hunt, its first settler, and then, on December 9, 1811, an act was passed incorporating Huntsville. It thus became the first incorporated town in what is now Alabama. The 1811 act provided that five trustees would be elected on the first Monday in February 1812. They were to have one year terms. This act is considered Huntsville's first charter. The act further had provided that all free white male inhabitants above 21 could vote. The trustees were to superintend the police of the town by passing such laws, not contrary to the law of the United States, or the Territory, as they might think proper for 'well government and for suppression of nuisances, laying off and repairing of the streets, and assessment of such tax as they might feel proper, not exceeding $200.' A constable was to be appointed to receive taxes.
An act of November 29, 1815 was passed, amending the 1811 act setting up government, and established a number of activities not listed before. This is not considered to be a new charter, as it merely amended the 1811 act. The 1815 act, stating that the town government would be the same as the town of St. Stephens, continued five trustees for one year terms. One of the five was selected as President by the board and would have Justice of the Peace powers. The Trustees were required to publish ordinances in a local paper and were given authority to establish roads, to appoint a Clerk, and a Clerk of the Market. A Constable, Treasurer, Assessor and Collector were established, to be elected by the people. The official title of this governing body was 'The President and Trustees of the Town of Huntsville' . The Trustees were given the power to levy, assess and collect such sums of money as they thought necessary for the supply of the town, not to exceed 12 cents on each $100 of taxable property, unless it was agreed on by the town freeholders, landholders and householders. They were authorized to levy a tax on carts, drays, wagons, and on retailers of spirituous liquors.
Three vacancies having occurred in the five member commission group that was selected in 1809, the Alabama legislature, on December 16, 1819, passed an act that appointed John Read, Henry Stokes and Jesse Searcy to fill the vacancies, probably being Dickson, Ward and Gilbreath. This act was passed as town lots were still being sold by the Town Commissioners. The town limits were established as 1/4 mile square by an act of December 14, 1819." - Record II
• "In December 1809, the Governor of the Mississippi Territory appointed a committee comprised of William Dickson, Edward Ward, Lewis Winston, Alex Gilbreath and Peter Perkins to select a site for the county seat and to purchase 30 acres to establish the town and construct the necessary buildings. Three of those acres were to be used for public buildings and the others divided into half acre lots, to be sold and those funds used for construction of the courthouse and jail. Placement of the public section was important in every settlement since it determined the center of activity and the best chance for profit from land sales. Property owners always competed for the prize." For the next several pages, this source, continues describing the arrangements and alliances. - HMCHS
• "Before the land sales Huntsville was a straggling village of squatters, living on government land and in the rude log cabins. The settlement was Before the land sales scattered along the table lands from Pope's Hill to the big spring, and there was nothing to show where the village commenced or ended. Alexander Gilbreath had a trading-house or store near the spring, about the corner of Gates and Henry streets. He appears to have been the first merchant in the new settlement, and after the city was laid out he and James White went into partnership and did a large business about the year 1811-12." - Hoole
• "Some time during the year 1810, Alexander Gilbreath opened a mercantile establishment at the corner of Gates and Henry streets, and about a year later formed a partnership with James White. This firm enjoyed a large and lucrative business for many years." - Betts
• "Disorderly conduct for whites was punishable by a fine of up to $50, while slaves could receive a maximum of 39 lashes. As early as 1811 John and Louis Winston, Calvin and Luther Morgen, Alex Gilbreath, Dillon Blevins, Gabriel Moore, and others were charged with assault and battery. " - Stephens
• "Second Major Alexander Gilbreath, one of the enumerated squatters waiting to enter the county legally." - Rohr
• "With this continued influx of people who required law and order in the eastern lands of the territory, Governor Williams made the initial militia assignments. (The Governor was of course, Commander-in-Chief.) He appointed Nicholas Perkins to head the newly formed Mississippi 7th Regiment, and William H. Winston, Adjutant. Stephen Neal was appointed 1st Major; Alexander Gilbreath became 2nd Major. The first Madison County-wide muster was held on October 29, 1810. To add his formal approval, the new Governor, David Holmes, attended the grand ceremonies on the muster field, most likely on the flats below the Big Spring. These military appointees were extraordinary men. Well educated, they seemed driven to take advantage of what lay before them - land, progress, and, perhaps with luck, wealth." - Rohr
• "Perhaps it was already becoming too crowded in Madison County. Gilbreath purchased only 39 acres in the local land sales before he moved to the Red Hill area of what would become Marshall County. There he married Polly Brown, half-sister of Catherine Brown. Catherine, a Cherokee educated at Brainerd, Tennessee, became a legendary teacher. (The sisters later taught Cherokee girls at Creek Path School.) In Marshall County, Gilbreath purchased over 360 acres and by 1840 owned 13 slaves. Gilbreath died in 1860 at the age of 80 and was interred in the family cemetery. His wife, Polly, was not buried there with him, however. At the time of the Cherokee Indian Removal, Polly made the trek to Oklahoma with many others. Alexander, according to family stories, was unable to join them because of his great size, too large for a horse or the carriage, and he remained in Marshall County." - Rohr
• Two entries were logged in a Family Forum chat:
1.) "A Polly Brown, daughter of John Brown and Watee (Cherokee), attended the Brainerd Mission School in the early 1800's. Her siblings included Richard, Capt. John, Catherine, David, Edward, Susan, Alexander, and Walter Webber. She is listed in some of the school's data as Polly Gilbreath, married to a wicked white man. (That's a quote!) The Brainerd Mission was located just southeast of Chickamauga, Tennessee-almost in Georgia. These Brown's were connected to Creek Path and Willstown in Alabama. I believe Polly went to Arkansas with her father in 1822." 2.) "Polly supposedly left Alexander because of his meanness and left on the trail, stopping in Ark." - Family Forum
• "An old Cherokee Chief, named Black Fox, died in the north of our county (Blount County), and was buried in an old mound; and in digging his grave, the Indians found some pieces of lead ore. This trivial discovery was magnified and circulated in Madison Count, and many intelligent persons in the county believed a lead mine really existed, at, or near the grave of the old Chief. This opinion became so strong, that Alexander Gilbreath, who then resided in Huntsville, was induced to visit the grave of Black Fox. His search there, proving unsuccessful.... Mr. George Fields, at that time fifty or sixty years old, informed him that the Indians knew of no lead mines nearer than those of Missouri and Illinois, and gave it as his opinion, that the lead found in the grave of Black Fox, had been brought from one of those States. John Gunter, (another old inhabitant of the valley, who had been brought up among the Chickasaws, and spent all his life with the Indians,) gave the same opinion, as to the pieces of lead which had been found in different parts of the county, viz: that they had been brought by the Indians from the northern mines. These two persons informed Mr. Gilbreath, that as far back as Indian memory extended, it was the custom of the Creeks to cross the Tennessee river near Deposit, (Baird's Bluff) and make long hunting expeditions, annually to the north, bringing with them, on their return, lead ore. - That the settling of Tennessee by the whites was a great obstacle in their way to the mines - particularly to those of Rock river. - That the Indians had then, in order to reach the mines, to bear lower down the Tennessee river, and that as the whites of Tennessee continued to extend their settlements westward, the difficulties in the way of the Creeks to the mines, were continually increasing. To this account, it may be added, that a company of Creeks, on a returning expedition of the above kind, murdered two or three white families, which led to the Indian war of 1812, at the close of which, they were finally barred from the mines by treaty." - George Powell
• He left a large estate to his brothers and sisters in Alabama. He had no children. - Hisdogbo
• Polly Brown, his wife, "was a wealthy Indian girl who, when her people were removed to Oklahoma Territory, abandoned her wealthy holdings in Alabama and accompanied her people." - Hisdogbo
• "Alexander Hays Gilbreath married Polly Brown, daughter of Chief John Brown of the Creek Path area in Al., Polly siblings were Catherine, David and Nancy. Alexander was also known as Col. Gilbreath. it's told that Polly left him because of his meanness, leaving supposedly on the trail of tears, she died somewhere in ARK." - esanala
Related Links:
• Ancestry.com - Page owned by wrhusbands and can be viewed only with an Ancestry.com paid subscription. (Originally found at http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/24001546/person/1455901587.)
• Betts - Early History of Huntsville Alabama, by Edward Chambers Betts, 1916, pages 14, 29.
• Black Fox - Transactions of the Alabama Historica Society, at the Annual Meeting by Alabama Historical Society in the City of Tuscaloosa, July 9th and 19th, 1855, pages 57, 58.
• esanala - A Roots Web Message Board entry.
• Family Forum - Post by Pam
• Find A Grave - Page created by Davie Dunlap.
• George Powell - Article by George Powell about Blount County and the relations between white settlers and the Cherokee Nation.
• Hisdogbo - A Roots Web Message Board entry.
• HMCHS - A History of Early Settlement: Madison County Before Statehood, 1808-1819 for The Huntsville-Madison County Historical Society, 2008, pages 46+ & 75.
• Hoole - A History of Madison County and Incidentally of North Alabama 1732-1940, by Judge Thomas Jones Taylor, Edited with an Introduction by W. Stanley Hoole and Addie S. Hoole, 1976, page 31.32, 37, 75, 76, 118.
• Record I - A Dream Come True: The Story of Madison County and Incidentally of Alabama and the United States, Volume I, by James Record, 1970, page 36.
• Record II - A Dream Come True: The Story of Madison County and Incidentally of Alabama and the United States, Volume II, by James Record, 1978, pages 333, 334, 523.
• Rohr - Article titled "Fife, Drum, and Ready Musket: The Early Militia and Muster Day in Madison County, Alabama" by Nancy M. Rohr.
• Stephens - Historic Huntsville: A City of New Beginnings, by Elise Hopkins Stephens, 2002, page 37.
• TVGS - On the Occasion of the 150th Anniversary of the State of Alabama, by The Tennessee Valley Genealogical Society, Inc., 1969, 1992 , pages 4, 24, 29, 67, 68.
The Following Pages Link to this Page:
• Betts
• HMCHS
• Record I
• Record II
• Rohr
• TVGS