Thomas B. Grantland

 Early Publisher of Newspaper

Nickname:T.B.
Born:1785, Powhatan, Virginia
Died:May 5, 1835, Montgomery, Alabama

Notes:

•  Married Ann E. Powell December 24, 1816 in Madison County, Alabama. She was born Nov. 4, 1789 (Virginia) and died Jan. 20 1878. - Ancestry.com

•  Father of:
     John Peyton Grantland (1817 - )
     William Thomas Grantland (1819 - 1863)
     Richard Harris Grantland (1824 - 1896)
     Sarah Cornelia Grantland (1832 - 1900) - Ancestry.com

•  "In 1816, The Huntsville Republican was begun by Thomas B. Grantland, taking over the Madison Gazette. Its name was changed to the Alabama Republican in 1818. The paper lasted nine years." - Record

•  "Quickly, the small community began to transform. Log houses began changing to brick after 1810 when masons Thomas and William Brandon came. The development continued as a Mr. Parham started the state's first newspaper, The Madison Gazette, a weekly, in 1812. The ownership and name changed in 1816 when T. B. Grantland called it The Huntsville Republican." - HMCHS

•  "For a number of years the first and only paper in the territory was the 'Madison Gazette,' published at Twickenham by Mr. Parham, having been established in the early part of 1813, as a weekly. Later, in 1816, this paper changed hands and was thereafter published by T. B. Grantland, under the name of 'The Huntsville Republican.'"
     "On September 7, 1816, the first issue of the weekly paper, the (Huntsville) Alabama Republican appeared, which, as we have observed, was formed from the Madison Gazette, already discontinued. T. B. Grantland was its editor; later, Messrs. Boardman & Adams became its owners and editors." - Betts

•  "In 1826 the Alabama Sentinel was published by Thomas Grantland. The sheet was small and the paper inferior. It was edited by Washington Moody, and contained the proceedings of the first sessions of the Legislature held in Tuscaloosa." - DeLand and Smith

•  "In 1816 The Huntsville Republican was begun by Thomas Grantland, replacing the Madison Gazette. The paper lasted nine years, with the name changing in 1818 to the Alabama Republican. The distance to the Mississippi Territorial capitol caused much concern for the rapidly growing area, and the newspapers helped to focus interest in breaking away for the Territorial government in favor of more local control. The U.S. Congress began to pay close attention to the wishes of the region, and on March 1, 1817, an act was passed to establish Mississippi as a state. Its constitution was adopted on August 15, 1817, at which time Alabama became a separate territory in accordance with the earlier act of Congress. The new Alabama territory included the counties of Clarke, Mobile, Limestone, Lauderdale, Washington, and Baldwin, along with Madison." - Heritage

•  He was probably the uncle of the Henry W. Grantland listed here. - Editor's Note


Related Links:

•  Ancestry.com - Page owned by Sharon Stewart and can be viewed only with an Ancestry.com paid subscription. (Originally found at http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/39893366/person/19424057092.)

•  Betts - Early History of Huntsville Alabama, by Edward Chambers Betts, 1916, pages 29, 32, 33.

•  DeLand and Smith - Northern Alabama: Historical and Biographical, by T. A. DeLand and A. Davis Smith, 1888, page 515.

•  Haroer - How You Played the Game: The Life of Grantland Rice by William Arthur Harper, 1999. The book about Grantland Rice includes the story of his grandfather, Henry W. Grantland and, by extension, there are a couple paragraphs about his great-uncle Thomas B. Grantland.

•  Heritage - The Heritage of Madison County, Alabama, by The Madison County Heritage Book Committee, John P. Rankin, Chairman, page 3.

•  HMCHS - A History of Early Settlement: Madison County Before Statehood, 1808-1819, Published by The Huntsville-Madison County Historical Society, 2008, page 51.

•  MCRC - Madison County Records Center, marriage

•  Record - A Dream Come True: The Story of Madison County and Incidentially of Alabama and the United States, Volume I, by James Record, 1970, page 52.

•  Rootsweb - Postings by Phillis J. K. Especially interesting is the detailed genealogy information, much of it copied from a book found in Montgomery's Alabama Archives titled "Genealogy of the Harris & Allied Families" by Pauline Myra Jones and Kathleen Paul Jones.


The Following Pages Link to this Page:
•  Betts
•  DeLand and Smith
•  HMCHS
•  Record