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mcc-jrr_202-008
Ward Mountain Cemetery, 20-2 Summary Report, page 8
It is believed that the two Collier men who purchased the SW/4 of Section 8 were sons of the James Collier who founded Myrtle Grove Plantation along the river west of Triana in 1818. According to the book “THE LURE AND LORE OF LIMESTONE COUNTY (Alabama)”, by Chris Edwards and Faye Axford (1978), James and his wife Elizabeth Bouldin had sons named Wyatt and Bouldin, which could have been mistaken as “Bolling” Collier. The firstborn of James and Elizabeth was Bouldin Collier, born in 1789 in Virginia. Their second child was Wyatt, born in 1791 and married Janet Walker, a daughter of James Walker. In fact, her father James Walker is thought to have been the father of the William Walker who served as President of Nicaragua in 1856. The third child of James and Elizabeth Collier was Martha, who married William Alexander Slaughter, from whose descendants we have today Slaughter Road and the Lanford - Slaughter House on Old Madison Pike. James Collier himself was also a Revolutionary War soldier, having received a sabre wound at the Battle of Eutaw Springs. The name Wyatt was given to his firstborn son in honor of his ancestor Sir Thomas Wyatt, an Elizabethan poet. Other children of James and Elizabeth Collier included Henry Watkins Collier, a Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court and Governor of the State, plus Thomas Bouldin Collier, who married Mary Harrison Dent. Mary Dent Collier was a close relative of Julia Dent Grant, wife of General Ulysses S. Grant, who became 18th President of the United States (1869 - 1877). One of the grandchildren of James and Elizabeth Collier married Dr. Samuel Jordan Withers, who was of the family of John Withers (nearby prominent landowner to the west, in Section 12 of T4-R2W, who had a daughter that married Clement Comer Clay, 8th Governor of Alabama) and of the prominent pioneer family of Bartholomew Jordan (another Revolutionary War patriot), for whom Jordan's Chapel and its cemetery were named. Bolling / Bouldin Collier acquired Wyatt / Wiatt Collier's share of the land of the SW/4 in 1813. However, he did not keep it long, as it passed through several intermediate owners until it became the property of James Manning in 1828. James Manning and his sons Peyton and George held the land of the SW/4 of Section 8 until 1835, when it passed into the hands of Bartley M. Lowe. Bartley Lowe was the owner of Lowe's Mill (a cotton textile firm), and he was a General of the Militia, as well as being owner of extensive lands. He is buried in Maple Hill Cemetery, along with his wife, who was a daughter of James Manning. 8 - (1612)