Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

12 April
12 April
12 April
Ebook854 pages12 hours

12 April

Rating: 0 out of 5 stars

()

Read preview

About this ebook

Richard Wesley Cole was a seventh-generation American whose family got caught up in Americas Civil War. He enlisted as a foot soldier with the 3rd Mississippi State Infantry in October 1863 and, less than a year later, became a horseman with Georges Regiment, Mississippi Cavalry, which later became the 5th Mississippi Cavalry in General Nathan Bedford Forrests Cavalry Department. Richard proudly rode with Forrest until Richard was killed on 12 April 1864, at the Battle of Fort Pillow in Lauderdale County, Tennessee.

Richards story is a history of his family, a partial history of the 5th Mississippi Cavalry, the 22nd Mississippi Infantry, and the 30th Mississippi Infantry, and is a history of the war itself seen through the eyes of Richard and his family.

When news reached Black Hawk, Mississippi, that Confederate troops in South Carolina had fired on Fort Sumter, the men and boys of the village were excited about the possibility of war with the North and bragged that if war came, it wouldnt be long before the Yankees were defeated and sent scurrying back home. The men and boys misunderstood what war would be like, but Richards wife, Eliza, didnt and her worst fears would be realized as the war decimated her family.

Eight days after the surrender of Fort Sumter, a volunteer state militia company was formed in Black Hawk. Richards oldest son, a son-in-law, and two future sons-in-law enlisted with the company. Richards second son ran away from home in February 1862 and joined the Confederate Army. Eight months later, Richard left home for the war.

Richard and his family lived through the most tumultuous period in our Nations history. They experienced firsthand the hardships and horrors of a nation at war with itself and it affected them for the rest of their lives.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateMar 11, 2014
ISBN9781490724416
12 April
Author

Gary C. Cole

Gary C. Cole is an eleventh-generation American born in Dallas, Texas in 1943 and graduated Summa Cum Laude from Texas Christian University in 1965. He is a direct lineal descendent of two citizens of the Republic of Texas and is a great-great grandson of three Confederate Veterans - William Hardy Bennett, a Private in Co. B of the 19th Texas Cavalry Regiment, Richard Wesley Cole, a Private in Co. C, 5th Regiment Mississippi Calvary, and Davis Greene Chapman, a Private in the 18th Texas Cavalry Regiment. He is a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans and has authored three books about the War for Southern Independence - 12 APRIL, Three Hundred and Sixty-Six Days at Fort Delaware, and Riding With the 19th Texas Cavalry in the War West of the Mississippi 1862-1865. He is a retired insurance company executive and served as past Chairman of the Texas Health Insurance Pool, past Chairman of the Texas Association of Life & Health Insurers, and a past member of the Board of Directors of Regions Bank-Tyler. He is an ordained Baptist Deacon and lives with his wife Betty on a small farm outside Bullard, Texas where they raise Registered Texas Longhorns.

Read more from Gary C. Cole

Related to 12 April

Related ebooks

Historical Fiction For You

View More

Related articles

Related categories

Reviews for 12 April

Rating: 0 out of 5 stars
0 ratings

0 ratings0 reviews

What did you think?

Tap to rate

Review must be at least 10 words

    Book preview

    12 April - Gary C. Cole

    Copyright 2014 Gary C. Cole.

    All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written prior permission of the author.

    ISBN: 978-1-4907-2439-3 (sc)

    ISBN: 978-1-4907-2440-9 (hc)

    ISBN: 978-1-4907-2441-6 (e)

    Library of Congress Control Number: 2014900680

    Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

    Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models,

    and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

    Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

    Trafford rev. 03/07/2014

    33164.png    www.trafford.com

    North America & international

    toll-free: 1 888 232 4444 (USA & Canada)

    fax: 812 355 4082

    119665.png

    Contents

    Illustrations

    Acknowledgements

    Foreword

    1   The Alabama Frontier

    2   Leaving Family

    3   Choctaw County

    4   Settlement At Black Hawk

    5   The Road To War

    6   12 April 1861

    7   The Black Hawk Rifles

    8   A Son Comes Home

    9   12 April 1862

    10   3Rd Mississippi State Infantry

    11   12 April 1863

    12   George’s Regiment, Mississippi Cavalry

    13   Riding With Forrest

    14   12 April 1864

    15   The Controversy

    16   The Telegram

    17   12 April 1865

    18   Peace At Last

    19   Leaving Black Hawk

    20   Soldiers Of The Confederacy

    21   Monuments And Memories

    Afterword

    Bibliography

    Illustration Credits

    About The Author

    Notes

    Also By Gary C. Cole

    Across the Frontier

    A History of the Cole Family from The 13th Century

    To My Wife

    BETTY

    And our ten-year old granddaughter BETHANY JANE HALL

    for her extraordinary interest in her 4th great grandfather

    119665.png

    ILLUSTRATIONS

    Huntsville, Alabama Receiver’s Office Receipt

    Huntsville, Alabama Land Office Certificate

    U.S. Patent Certificate

    Richard’s Map to Columbus, Mississippi

    Black Hawk Property Indenture

    Slave Note

    Charleston Mercury 20 December 1860

    The Black Hawk Rifles Recruiting Poster

    Mississippi Central Railway Schedule

    Mobile and Ohio Railway Schedule

    New Orleans and Ohio Railway Schedule

    Form No. 5

    Form No. 4

    Neill Guards of Carroll County Recruiting Poster

    3rd Mississippi State Infantry Recruiting Poster

    Rebel Attack on Collierville

    Chalmers Defeated

    Confederate Prisoners at Chattanooga Train Station

    Lieutenant General Nathan Bedford Forrest

    Deaths in the Confederate Army

    Mt. Moriah Lodge, Black Hawk, Mississippi

    Bank of Black Hawk, Mississippi

    Company Muster Roll of Co. C, 5 Reg’t Mississippi Cavalry

    Mesquite Farmer Has Disappeared

    Henry Asbury Cole Obituary

    Commemorative Postage Stamp

    Confederate Monuments

    119665.png

    ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

    Those who have gone before cry out for us to tell their story.

    T he telling of Richard Wesley Cole’s story became possible as a result of a series of events, beginning with an online conversation between Nancy Cole Douglas of Azle, Texas, and Shirley Hood of Jenks, Oklahoma, in September 2007. Nancy is a genealogist, who has gathered and preserved on the internet an unbelievable amount of information about the Cole family. Shirley contacted Nancy, seeking information about Virginia V. Cole, a daughter of Richard and Eliza Jane Cole of Black Hawk, Mississippi. During their conversation, Shirley mentioned, and later sent to Nancy, an article entitled, The Saga of Private Henry A. Cole & Family During the Civil War, written by Steve Cole of Collierville, Tennessee. Steve, a military historian, had discovered and preserved on his website, a record of his part of the Cole family’s involvement in The War Between The States along with Steve’s summary of the Battle of Fort Pillow and an incredibly detailed record of the battle’s participants and casualties.

    In 1973, Nancy had purchased a small book that I had written about the history of the Cole family. Richard Wesley Cole’s war experiences were then unknown. Nancy literally hunted me down some thirty-four years later in Bullard, Texas, in the fall of 2007 to tell me that she and I were cousins and she had come across another cousin in Tennessee, who had a record of Richard Wesley Cole’s death at the Battle of Fort Pillow on 12 April 1864. She rekindled my interest in our family’s history and ultimately encouraged me to write this book.

    Nancy contacted Steve and introduced me to him. The three of us jointly worked on many projects related to the Battle of Fort Pillow and the history of the Cole family. Together, we discovered much information about the battle, our family, and its involvement in The War Between the States, including a wealth of information about Richard’s wife, Eliza Jane Jones, and her family.

    Nancy shared her considerable genealogical research expertise and spent untold hours gathering and sending to me Census Records, Confederate Military Service Records, and other information about Richard Wesley Cole, the members of his family in Mississippi, Texas, Alabama, and Arkansas and the members of Eliza Jane JONES Cole’s family in Alabama.

    Steve shared his considerable expertise about military historical research, The War Between the States, and the Battle of Fort Pillow and introduced me to his brother, Newton Futral Cole, Jr. of San Antonio, Texas. Newton is a train aficionado with an unbelievable amount of knowledge about railroads during the 1860’s. He provided me with era train schedules, other railroad information, and shared train stories, some of which found their way into several chapters of this book.

    The four of us, Nancy, Steve, Newton, and I—all great-great grandchildren of Richard Wesley Cole—accomplished together what none of us could have accomplished alone. We gathered a vast amount of information about our great-great grandparents and their families, which became the basis for this book, and we are justifiably proud that our great-great grandfather rode with General Nathan Bedford Forrest during The War Between the States. I am deeply indebted to them. Without their assistance and encouragement, Richard Wesley Cole’s story would have never been told.

    I’m especially grateful to my wife, Betty, who assisted with proof reading and, for six long years, tolerated my countless hours at the computer and reading books, which with stacks of notes and papers, were strewn all over the house. Her understanding, patience, support, and encouragement are appreciated. Thanks, also, to our daughter Pamela Willard for sharing her computer expertise.

    An anonymous writer once said, Those who have gone before cry out to us to tell their story. Thanks to all of those mentioned above, Richard Wesley Cole’s story has now been told and it is a story worth the telling.

    119665.png

    FOREWORD

    Richard Wesley Cole and his family lived through the most tumultuous period in our Nation’s history. They experienced firsthand the horrors of a Nation at war with itself and it affected them for the rest of their lives.

    R ichard Wesley Cole was a seventh-generation American raised on the frontier of Northwestern Alabama during the early 1800’s. His family owned slaves and he closely followed the debate which ultimately divided the Nation. Richard married Eliza Jane Jones in 1839. A year later, he and Eliza left Alabama with their infant daughter and moved west to another frontier in Choctaw County, Mississippi. A decade or so later, they moved again—further west—and settled on a quarter section of land in Carroll County near Black Hawk, Mississippi.

    Richard worked the land like generations of his family before him and purchased his first slaves in April 1860. A year later, he was out working in his fields on 12 April 1861, getting ready to plant another cotton crop, when his neighbor, John McCarty, hurriedly rode up and breathlessly told him that the telegraph office in Black Hawk had received news that Confederate forces in Charleston, South Carolina, had fired on Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor early that morning. Richard and his family climbed into their wagon and headed to Black Hawk, where they became part of the crowd filling the streets, discussing the possibility of war, and anxiously awaiting further news from Charleston.

    The men and boys were excited about the possibility of war with the North and bragged that if war came, it wouldn’t be long before the South defeated them and sent them scurrying back home, but Eliza was saddened by the prospects of war. The men and boys misunderstood what war would be like, but Eliza didn’t and her worst fears came true as the war decimated her family.

    The crowds still filled the streets of Black Hawk the next day when news of Fort Sumter’s surrender was received. Cheer after cheer filled the air and a patriotic fervor surged throughout the village. Eight days later on 21 April 1861, a volunteer state militia company, called The Black Hawk Rifles, was formed in Black Hawk. Richard’s nineteen-year-old son, a son-in-law, and a future son-in-law enlisted with the company. Four months later, another future son-in-law joined that same company. In February 1862, Richard’s second son, barely age seventeen, ran away from home to join the Confederate Army.

    Eight months later, Richard left home for the war and left his wife, three daughters, and youngest son behind. He enlisted as a foot soldier with the 3rd Mississippi State Infantry on 24 October 1862, and less than a year later on 11 August 1863, became a horseman with George’s Regiment, Mississippi Cavalry, which later became the 5th Regiment Mississippi Cavalry and a part of General Nathan Bedford Forrest’s Cavalry Department. Richard proudly rode with Forrest’s Calvary until Richard was killed on 12 April 1864, while storming Fort Pillow in Lauderdale County, Tennessee.

    12 April is the story of Richard’s life and his family’s experiences during the War Between the States and the twelve dark years of Reconstruction that followed. It is an extensively-researched and carefully-crafted historical novel. The large number of endnotes within Richard’s story reflects the efforts made to accurately weave the known facts about Richard and his family into the written record of the War and Reconstruction. The dates, locations, and events portrayed are accurate and the placement of Richard and his family within those events is factual, but Richard and his family’s feelings and reactions to the historical events through which they lived are necessarily fictional because history has not preserved those feelings and reactions. Although the letters written to and from Richard’s family are fictional, the historical events mentioned in those letters and the family’s involvement with those events is factual. Except where noted, all of the characters in Richard’s story are real people who actually experienced the events portrayed.

    Richard Wesley Cole and his family lived through the most tumultuous period in our Nation’s history. They experienced firsthand the hardships and horrors of a Nation at war with itself and it affected them for the rest of their lives.

    119665.png

    1

    THE ALABAMA FRONTIER

    Alabama Fever swept the Nation and thousands of land-hungry pioneers from Tennessee, Virginia, Georgia, and the Carolinas migrated to the Alabama Territory to settle on cheap, fertile land recently ceded by the Creek Indians.

    T he nation into which Richard Wesley Cole was born in 1819 was not yet forty-four years old and was changing rapidly. Its second war with Great Britain, the War of 1812, had ended just four years earlier. The New England States had opposed the war and did not provide militia units or financial support for the war. They even threatened to secede from the Union. ¹ Although the war accomplished very little militarily, ² the economic and political effects of the war within the United States were far reaching. A new period of growth and territorial expansion followed the war and a spirit of nationalism was born, but the issues of States’ Rights, local interests, and strict interpretation of the Constitution emerged from the war intact ³ and would ultimately divide the Nation.

    A separate, but integral part of the war with Great Britain was the Creek Indian War of 1813-1814, which was fought almost entirely within the eastern half of the Mississippi Territory. The Treaty of Fort Jackson, which ended that war five months before the end of the war with Great Britain, ceded twenty-three million acres of Creek Indian land to the United States Government and opened the eastern half of the Mississippi Territory to white settlement.

    Soon after the war ended, Southerners began pressuring the National Congress in Washington to create two slave states from the Mississippi Territory and on 3 March 1817, President James Madison signed legislation dividing the territory. Five months later on 15 August 1817, the western half of the territory became the State of Mississippi and the eastern half of the territory became the Alabama Territory.Alabama Fever swept the Nation and thousands of land-hungry pioneers from Tennessee, Virginia, Georgia, and the Carolinas migrated to the Alabama Territory to settle on cheap, fertile land recently ceded by the Creek Indians.⁶ Movement within the territory towards statehood began almost immediately and the territorial government at St. Stephens was overwhelmed with petitions for statehood.⁷ Richard’s father, William Bibb Cole, Jr., then age 23, and Richard’s grandfather, William Bibb Cole, Sr., then age 51, and their families were among the first settlers migrating to the Alabama Territory. They left Georgia and moved to the northwestern part of the Territory at the foot of the Appalachian Mountain Range during the early part of 1818, settling on the western side of the North River in that part of Tuscaloosa County, which would become Fayette County in 1824. Shortly after arriving in the Territory, William Bibb Cole, Jr. and his wife, Mary Freeman Cole, had the first of their nine children and named him Josiah. The next year, another son was born and was named Richard after his great-great grandfather.⁸

    Richard Wesley Cole was a seventh-generation American whose earliest immigrant ancestor, William Cole I, immigrated to the Jamestown Colony in Virginia in 1618 from the village of Tillingham in Essex County, England. A short time after William’s arrival in Virginia, he married a young girl named Frances, who had come to Virginia two years earlier.⁹ The family they started lived during the formative years of our great Nation when dreams of American freedom and independence were commonplace.

    The Coles were well-educated, well-connected politically, and involved in the governmental affairs of the Commonwealth of Virginia. They acquired large tracts of land and were part of Virginia’s landed aristocracy. In 1671, William Cole II purchased a 1,350 acre estate, called Boldrup, situated on the Warwick River in Warwick County, Virginia, which became the seat of the Cole family for nearly one hundred years. He patented a tract of 618 acres in York County in 1683 and two years later purchased an additional 1,433 acres in Warwick and Elizabeth Counties.¹⁰ The Coles owned slaves and raised tobacco before leaving Virginia for Georgia in 1804.

    Richard Wesley Cole was born to a pioneer family in Tuscaloosa County on the Alabama frontier just a dozen years after a boy named Abraham was born to another pioneer family some four hundred miles northward in Hardin County on the Kentucky frontier. The two boys would share the unique experiences common to growing up on the frontier, but their lives would take dramatically different paths and would profoundly impact each other. One would move from the Kentucky frontier to a town in Indiana then to another town in Illinois, while the other would move from the Alabama frontier to a frontier in Choctaw County, Mississippi, then to another frontier just forty miles east of the Mississippi River in Carroll County, Mississippi. One would become President of the United States and fight to preserve the Union and the other would become a Private in the Army of the Confederate States of America and fight to dissolve the Union. Neither would live to see if their cause prevailed.

    Alabama became the twenty-second State of the Union the same year that Richard was born. Its Constitution legalized slavery and provided for the humane treatment of slaves.¹¹ Alabama and the other ten slaveholding states of Delaware, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, South and North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia equalized representation in the U. S. Senate with the eleven Free States of Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont.¹² Although political balance between the Slave and Free States had been achieved in the U.S. Senate, sectional rivalry over the slavery issue would increase during the years ahead as anti-slavery sentiment continued to grow in the North and the North’s population increased at a rate that assured its dominance in the House of Representatives. Southerners felt that their way of life would be threatened if the North gained control of the Senate and they were determined to not let that happen.¹³ Richard grew up in the midst of the sectional rivalry between the South and the North.

    The Coles acquired large tracts of land in Alabama. They worked their land with slaves and were successful cotton planters. Richard’s grandfather, William Bibb Cole Sr., owned fourteen slaves in 1830¹⁴ and, at the time of his death in Fayette County on 9 July 1857, he owned 530 acres of land.¹⁵ When Richard’s father, William Bibb Cole Jr., died two months later on 3 September 1857, in Cherokee County, Texas, he owned 920 acres of land and fifteen slaves.¹⁶ Richard never became a large slave owner like his father and grandfather, but he, too, would own slaves and would closely follow the politics of slavery and the sectional rivalry that would one day engulf and divide the Nation.

    The area in which the Coles lived in Alabama was sparsely settled. Neighbors were few and far between. Roads were practically non-existent. Most of the roads that did exist were little more than paths through the woods and around land that had been recently cleared for planting. Clear Creek, the nearest village to the Cole’s plantation, was more than a half day’s ride away and trips to the small general store in the village were infrequent. The Coles were self-sufficient like the other pioneers in the area.

    Richard’s mother, Mary, spun yarn and cotton thread and wove it into cloth on an old loom that had been in the family for generations. She made all of her family’s clothes and knitted their socks. She helped on the farm and cooked their meals with the vegetables they grew in her garden and the animals they killed in the nearby woods.

    As a young boy, Richard walked barefoot across newly plowed ground and watched his father and grandfather working with their slaves to clear and cultivate the land. His family raised wheat, corn, oats and lots of cotton. Richard helped his mother gather eggs from their chickens and picked vegetables from a large garden. He picked berries from the wild bushes growing around the edge of the woods and fields. Wild plum trees were abundant and it was a special treat to pick and eat the plums in early summer. He learned to ride a horse almost as soon as he could walk and was often seen riding across his family’s fields. When he was not working on the family’s plantation, he fished in the nearby streams and hunted for squirrel, rabbits, and other small game. He became self-reliant, an excellent horseman, and a good marksman—traits that would someday serve him well as a soldier in a then distant war.

    News from the Nation’s Capital was slow reaching the Alabama frontier. It was dependent on weeks-old letters and equally old newspapers from far away towns. The latest news was eagerly sought and willingly shared when available. Richard’s father had heard about the bitter debate in Washington City over Missouri’s request for statehood and eagerly read a local newspaper article about the debate. The article reported that Missouri’s request for statehood had caused a firestorm in Washington. It was fiercely opposed by the North because the admission of Missouri to the Union as a Slave State would give the South a one-vote margin in the U. S. Senate and open the way for the expansion of slavery in the rest of the territory acquired in the Louisiana Purchase. Both sides of the issue threatened sectional war and dissolution of the Union.

    Richard’s father was relieved to learn that a compromise had been reached under which Maine would be admitted as a Free State, the citizens of Missouri would determine whether slavery would exist in their State, and slavery would be banned in any part of the Missouri Territory north of the southern boundary of the State of Missouri.¹⁷ Although the immediate crises between the Free and Slave States was averted, sectional rivalry would continue to intensify over the decades ahead as anti-slavery sentiment grew in the North and the South became even more determined than ever to preserve its way of life by preventing the North from gaining absolute control of the Federal Government.

    On 24 April 1820, the U. S. Congress passed a Public Land Act to help settlers purchase land. The Act reduced the minimum price of Public Land from $2 to $1.25 per acre and required that land purchases be made with gold or silver. The minimum acreage eligible for purchase was reduced from 160 to 80 acres¹⁸ and was later reduced to 40 acres. Seventeen years after passage of the Public Land Act, Richard Cole would purchase a forty-acre tract of land under the Act’s provisions.

    Settlers continued to pour into Alabama and its population, which had been only 9,046 in 1810, was 144,317 in 1820 with slaves accounting for almost 33% of its population.¹⁹ The growing slave population provided the labor to grow and harvest cotton, but caused anxiety among many of the pioneers in the State and caught the attention of Northern abolitionists.

    Richard’s father was pleased when Missouri became the twenty-fourth state of the Union on 10 August 1821, by President James Monroe’s Presidential Proclamation. Missouri’s citizens chose to legalize slavery within its borders and Missouri entered the Union as a Slave State. Representation in the U. S. Senate between the Free and Slave States was again equalized.

    During the fall of 1822, Richard accompanied his father to the village of Clear Creek to purchase supplies for their farm. While there, his father discussed with the proprietor of the general store the unsettling news from South Carolina about a slave revolt that was averted on 30 May 1822, when an informer revealed the slaves’ plan before it could be implemented. One hundred and thirty-four negroes were arrested and thirty-four were hanged.²⁰ The increasingly frequent unrest over slavery bothered Richard’s father and Richard grew up listening to him and other adults discuss where that unrest might eventually lead.

    On 4 July 1826, Richard and his family attended a picnic at one of their neighbor’s farms to celebrate Independence Day, unaware that former Presidents Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, who both had signed the Declaration of Independence, had died that same day. Their death on the fiftieth anniversary of the birth of the Nation ended the revolutionary epoch and the unity that had characterized the Nation during that period.²¹ The Nation was no longer unified. The North and South had begun to grow apart. Two years earlier on 22 May1824, the first of a series of tariffs, oppressive to the South, was passed by the National Congress. The tariff raised prices on finished cotton and other selected items and unified the North and West against the South. Another tariff, called the Tariff of Abominations, was passed in 1828. Southerners were outraged by the tariffs and talk of State’s Rights, nullification, and secession were commonplace.²²

    Alabama continued its remarkable growth as settlers poured into the State, settled on its fertile land, and grew cotton and other crops. The Census of 1830 reported that Alabama’s population had increased to 309,527 with slaves making up almost 38% of that population.²³ Though Richard was not yet twelve years old, he understood the concerns about Alabama’s growing slave population.

    On the fourth Sunday of September 1831, Richard and his family attended the church services held by an itinerant Methodist circuit rider. The preacher brought a message from the Lord and news about a slave insurrection in Virginia. A pot luck dinner was held on the grounds after the morning services. While the women were preparing lunch, the men were talking about Nat Turner, a negro preacher in Southampton County, Virginia, who had led a slave insurrection on 13-23 August 1831, killing sixty whites. During the ensuing manhunt, one hundred negroes were killed and twenty negroes, including Nat Turner, were executed after a trial.²⁴ Richard listened closely to the men’s comments about the insurrection and the dangers inherent in the large slave population of Alabama.

    On 12 November 1833, Richard and his family were setting outside on their porch, enjoying the cool fall evening. Little wind was blowing and there was not a trace of clouds in the sky. All of a sudden, they saw a spectacular meteor storm with thousands of small meteors shooting across the dark sky in rapid succession and leaving a glowing trail in the atmosphere. The Florence Gazette reported the phenomena and said that the meteor storm contained between 100,000 and 200,000 small meteors and it was the night the stars fell on Alabama.²⁵

    That same issue of the Gazette contained an article about a compromise tariff bill that had been signed by President Andrew Jackson on 2 March 1833. It was believed that the bill would resolve the nullification crises that arose in November 1832 when the South Carolina Legislature nullified the tariffs of 1828 and 1832 and asserted that an individual state had the right to secede from the Union. President Andrew Jackson proclaimed that secession from the Union was impossible because the Federal Government is sovereign and indivisible and warned that disunion by armed force was treason. He asked for and received Congressional approval to use military force to enforce the tariff laws.²⁶ Although the nullification crises had been resolved by the new tariff bill, the growing differences between the North and the South had not been resolved and those differences would ultimately end in the secession of thirteen Southern States.

    Richard, Josiah, and their father got up earlier than normal on a cold and windy November 1836 morning, hitched a team of mules to their wagon, and drove to Clear Creek to purchase supplies for the coming winter. The newspapers in the village were full of news about the year’s events in Mexico and Texas. The papers reported that a large Mexican army of 4,000 soldiers had besieged a small garrison of Texans at a San Antonio mission, called the Alamo, on 23 February 1836. Eleven days later on 6 March 1836, all of the 187 Texans defending the garrison were killed. In the meantime, a convention of Texans had gathered at the small village of Washington, Texas, on 2 March 1836, and adopted a resolution declaring Texas’ independence from Mexico. On 27 March 1836, Mexican General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna massacred a force of 350 Texans at Goliad. Then less than a month later on 21 April 1836, General Santa Anna’s army was defeated near the San Jacinto River and Texas gained its independence. A little over two months later on 4 July 1836, the United States officially recognized the Republic Of Texas.²⁷ After loading their wagon with their newly purchased supplies, the Coles headed home, anxious to share the news about the new Republic of Texas. They were unaware that one day that new nation would impact the future of their family and the entire country.

    Richard, his brother Josiah, their father William, and their uncle Littleton got up well before dawn on Thursday 20 April 1837. This was the day they were leaving for The U. S. General Land Office in Huntsville to apply for Patents on two tracts of land that they had been clearing near the family plantation. It was a cold spring morning with heavy dew on the ground. The wind was blowing out of the west and an almost-full moon provided enough light for them to easily locate their horses in the pasture, put bridles on them, and lead them into the corral on the east side of the barn. They took an already-opened bag of oats from the barn and spread its contents in a weathered feed trough large enough for the four horses to leisurely eat the oats while the four men returned to the big house for breakfast. Richard’s mother, Mary, had been cooking bacon, eggs, biscuits, and gravy while the men were getting their horses ready for the trip. The welcomed smell of frying bacon filled the air as the men stepped on the porch, eager to eat breakfast and be on their way. As the men sat down at the table and started eating, Mary gathered enough biscuits, sorghum molasses, hardtack, and jerky for several days’ meals during their one hundred-plus mile trip to Huntsville. She carefully packed them with just-ground coffee beans and a small, old, and battered tin coffee pot and four equally old and battered tin cups into two of the saddle bags brought into the house the night before.

    The entire family had arisen early and taken their places at a large table, piled high with food and dimly lit by an oil lamp and the glowing fireplace. They were excited about the long-awaited trip to the General Land Office. As they ate, William and Littleton discussed the route they would take to Huntsville.²⁸ The decision was made to ride eastwardly into the rising sun until they got to the wagon road running north from Tuscaloosa to Russellville in Franklin County. They would have to cross the North River at the very beginning of their journey and would have to cross Lost Creek before they reached the junction of the road going northeast to Jasper in Walker County. There was some concern about the effect of recent rains on the water crossings, but Richard boldly declared that he and his horse could make the crossings without difficulty. He was right.

    The first part of the journey would be the most difficult because they would pass through dense woods between their land and a long narrow meadow about a half day’s ride away. From that meadow, they would take an old Creek Indian trail to the wagon road. Once they reached the wagon road, it would be a much easier ride to the junction with the road to Jasper. From there, they would ride northeast to Summenville and Decatur before crossing the Muscle Shoals River to Triana and Huntsville. The trip to Huntsville would take at least seven days of hard riding with little time to rest along the way. It would be a difficult and dangerous journey made even more so by the two hundred silver dollars wrapped in several old socks and placed in William’s and Littleton’s saddle bags. With other settlers making the same trip with large amounts of gold or silver for purchasing land on the frontier, the danger from robbers on the often-deserted roads was heightened. But the Coles would be well prepared for whatever danger they might encounter during their journey for each of the men carried revolvers and rifles with plenty of ammunition in their saddlebags.

    It was not yet light when breakfast was over and the entire family made their way under the light of the setting moon to the corral, where the horses had finished eating their oats and were nervously walking around in anticipation of the morning’s ride. Blankets and saddles were brought from the barn and placed on the horses, which had now been tied to the split and sagging rails of the corral. Each rider wore a large-brimmed hat, leather gloves, and a long dusty coat for protection against the chill of the early morning. They placed their bedrolls, canteens, and saddlebags, filled to capacity with silver dollars, ammunition, and food, on their saddled horses and were ready for the long trip to Huntsville.

    Mary opened the gate to the corral and the four riders left and headed east with William in the lead as the day’s first light was just beginning to appear over the eastern horizon. Mary and the rest of the family watched until the riders disappeared into the still-dark woods at the edge of their fields. The family then returned to the house to clean up after breakfast and get ready for another busy day in the fields. The men would be gone for two weeks or more and it was early spring with a lot of work to be done on the plantation while they were gone.

    The riders crossed the North River without incident. They rode single file and slowly made their way eastward though the woods. They were peppered with droplets of water as they brushed against limbs still wet with the morning dew. After several hours of slow riding, they came to the long and narrow meadow well east of the North River and startled a small herd of deer, grazing near the woods at the northern edge of the meadow. The deer watched nervously as the men dismounted near the beaver pond at the southern end of the meadow to stretch their legs, fill their canteens from the cold springs feeding the pond, and let their horses forage on the tender, spring grass. Richard watched the surface of the pond ripple as fish fed on the small insects landing on the water and carefully listened as William and Littleton recalled days past when they had trapped beaver and caught fish in the pond’s clear cool water.

    After a brief rest, the men walked their horses to the Indian trail on the eastern side of the meadow. They mounted their horses and rode eastward on the trail winding through the woods. They knew that the wagon road was now less than three hours away. Once they reached the road, an easier and faster ride awaited them. They made better time now that they were on the trail. As the sun was moving past its highest point in the cloudless, blue sky, the men stopped to rest their horses and let them graze on the grassy banks of the slow-moving stream running parallel to the trail. Richard opened his saddle bag and gave each man several biscuits and jerky for lunch. They filled their canteens at the creek and were back on the trail within a few minutes. An hour later, they reached the wagon road from Tuscaloosa to Russellville. With William still in the lead, the four men broke their horses into a slow gallop and moved quickly along the rutted road, overgrown with the fast-growing weeds of spring. The sun began to slip behind the tree line on the west side of the road and the men decided to stop for the night.

    They left the road and rode northeastward a half mile along the bank of a small, but fast-moving creek until they came to a small clearing that was well-hidden from the road. William and Littleton unsaddled and tied the horses up for the night while Richard and Josiah gathered dry weeds, dead grass, small twigs, and larger limbs for a fire. Richard took a flint and steel from his pocket and held it close to the stack of dry weeds and grass placed under the small twigs. He struck the flint downward on the face of the steel, but nothing happened. He tried again and nothing happened. It took him five more tries before he got a good spark. The spark breathed life into the dry weeds, dead grass, and small twigs. The larger limbs were placed on the burning twigs and it wasn’t long before he had a roaring fire. The fire provided light in the rapidly darkening sky and warmth from the coolness that rushed in when the sun disappeared below the western horizon.

    Richard spread his bedroll on the soft ground close to the stream, ready for a good night’s sleep. Josiah watched the horses while the other three men slept then Richard took his turn watching the horses. He had no trouble staying awake because his mind was filled with visions of the trip to the Land Office in Huntsville. A couple of hours later, Littleton relieved Richard and took his turn watching the horses. William’s watch was next. He rekindled the fire and put a pot of coffee on the hot coals shortly before dawn. The other three men awoke to the rich smell of hot boiling coffee and ate more biscuits and molasses before breaking camp. They picked up their bedrolls, saddlebags, and other items. They saddled their horses and quickly rode the half mile back to the wagon road where they turned north towards the junction with the road to Jasper as the sun was just beginning to rise in the east. Their second day on the road was uneventful and they again camped for the night in a small clearing about a half mile west of the road as darkness drove the last light from the sky. They got up early the next morning, ate breakfast, saddled their horses, and rode northward towards the junction with the road to Jasper. After crossing Lost Creek, they came to the junction, turned east and continued on their way to Jasper.

    As they rounded a bend on the road to Jasper, they saw three riders heading their direction about a half mile away. The riders were too far away to tell much about them, but Richard and Josiah slowed their horses and fell back twenty or so paces behind William and Littleton. They were carrying a large amount of silver in their saddlebags and fully understood the ever-present danger of robbery on the isolated road. The three riders nodded and tipped their hats to William and Littleton as they passed by without incident. Richard and Josiah spurred their horses forward and rejoined William and Littleton, relieved that the riders had presented no danger to them.

    They had ridden a little over an hour more when they saw another group of riders in the distance coming their way. There were four riders in this group and as they came closer, Richard and Josiah again fell back about twenty paces behind William and Littleton. Unlike the first group of riders who simply nodded and passed by, these riders stopped and questioned William and Littleton. When the strangers stopped, Richard and Josiah stopped their horses to maintain their distance from William, Littleton, and the four suspicious-looking riders. Richard eased his horse to the left side of the road while Josiah stayed on the right side of the road. They never took their eyes off the strangers ahead. Richard slipped the strap off of his holster and slowly removed his revolver and laid it across his saddle. Josiah did the same as they kept a wary eye on the dirty, rough-looking group of men. The roughest-looking of the four men had a long unkempt beard and even longer hair protruding out from under his old, weather-beaten hat. He must have been the leader of the group for when they stopped, he questioned William. He asked William if they were headed to Huntsville. William told them that they were not headed to Huntsville, but were turning west at Summenville for another half-day’s ride to his cousin’s farm for a barn raising.

    The tallest of the four men made a gruff comment in response to William and glanced at Richard and Josiah before riding down the dusty road towards them. Richard and Josiah started their horses forward at a slow pace when the four strangers left William and Littleton. As the strangers passed by, Richard and Josiah picked up their pace and joined William and Littleton, relieved that the expected trouble from the four strangers did not materialize. Before the Coles started forward, they glanced southward and saw that the four strangers had stopped in the road, dismounted, and were staring their way. After a few minutes, the four strangers remounted their horses and continued on their way south.

    The Coles were especially vigilant the rest of the day, often glancing over their shoulders, ever mindful of the dangers they were facing on the often-deserted road. That night they were especially careful to leave no signs as they left the wagon road and found a well-concealed clearing for a campsite almost a mile west off the road. They built no fire and posted two guards rather than one during the night. They did not leave before dawn as was their custom, but waited until the sun had been up for a while before eating cold biscuits and jerky washed down by the tepid water in their canteens. After breakfast, they rode the mile back to the wagon road and headed to Jasper.

    They crossed a tributary of the Sipsey River and reached Jasper well before dark on Sunday and decided to stop for the night. They unsaddled and boarded their horses for a much-needed rest in a small livery stable next to a still-opened blacksmith shop. William had the furrier check the shoes on his horse. Rather than spend the night in the small inn in town, the Coles decided to spend the night in the stable with their horses.

    They saddled their horses early Monday morning and rode to the inn for a warm breakfast of ham, biscuits, and eggs then resumed their journey towards Huntsville. It wasn’t long before they crossed two forks of the Sipsey River. They passed no one on the road that day and camped that night near Morgan in a deep ravine surrounded by trees about one-half mile eastward off of the road. As they were unsaddling their horses, Richard saw a rabbit at the edge of the ravine. He quickly took his rifle, pulled the trigger and shouted got him as the rabbit fell into the ravine. He skinned the rabbit as Josiah was building a fire. They placed two forked sticks beyond the edge of the fire and balanced the rabbit on a long stick between the two forked sticks. It wasn’t long before the rabbit was sufficiently roasted and they enjoyed a great meal of rabbit, biscuits, and coffee before they retired for the night.

    They got up early Tuesday morning, ate breakfast, saddled their horses and were back on the wagon road as the sun was rising in the east. About mid-morning, they met a pioneer family in their wagon, returning from Huntsville where they had applied for a Patent on their land on the Alabama frontier. William cautioned them about the four strangers they had met on the road Saturday afternoon and encouraged them to stop early and camp well off of the road that night.

    It was almost dark when the Coles reached Summenville. They boarded their horses in a livery stable and went to the boarding house next door where they enjoyed a great dinner of steak, potatoes, and all the trimmings and then relaxed in the parlor. While there, they had an opportunity to read several old Huntsville newspapers that were scattered on a dusty table in the corner of the room. One of the newspapers, The Huntsville Democrat, had a lengthy article about the growing abolition movement. It mentioned that slavery in the United States began soon after the colonists first settled in Virginia. John Casor had become the first legally recognized black slave in 1654 when the court in Northampton County ruled that he was owned by the black colonist Anthony Johnson and was his property for life.²⁹

    The article reported that slavery existed in all of the American colonies prior to independence and was not a sectional issue. However, after the Revolutionary War, many within the Northern States began to view slavery as contradictory to the ideals of the Revolution. There was a growing sentiment in the North that slavery was a social evil and eventually should be abolished. All of the Northern States passed emancipation acts between 1780 and 1804 with most of the acts providing for gradual emancipation.³⁰

    The economic value of slaves had increased dramatically in 1793 with the invention of the cotton gin by Eli Whitney. The cotton gin revolutionized the cotton-growing industry by increasing five-fold the amount of cotton that could be processed daily. The growth of the cotton industry in the South exploded and the demand for slave labor increased again.³¹ When the United States Congress banned the importation of slaves on 1 January 1808, the value of slaves again increased dramatically. By 1820, there were only about 3,000 slaves in the North with most of those working on large farms in New Jersey. Slavery was not a vital part of the Northern economy and could be easily abolished there.

    Circumstances in the South were vastly different. The slave population was large. Much of the wealth of the Southern States came from crops grown by slaves. The Southern States were determined to hold on to their slaves after the Revolution and the sectional rivalry between Free States and Slave States began.³² That rivalry grew more serious with each passing decade and on 12 December 1831, fifteen petitions from Pennsylvania were presented to the House of Representatives, calling for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia.³³ About that same time, a religious movement led by William Lloyd Garrison declared slavery to be a personal sin and demanded that all slave owners repent and free their slaves.

    The New England Antislavery Society was founded in 1832.³⁴ Three years later in 1835, the Society began distributing large quantities of antislavery propaganda throughout the Nation. Their fervor provoked many Southern Legislatures to enact laws prohibiting the circulation of antislavery material in their States.

    On 29 July 1835, a mob of angry citizens in Charleston, South Carolina, forcibly removed abolition materials from the post office and burned them on the town’s parade ground. In October of that year, abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison narrowly escaped being killed by an angry mob in Boston ³⁵ and the following year, abolitionists began flooding Congress with petitions demanding the abolition of slavery.³⁶ The newspaper article ended by stating that the abolitionists’ tactics had united the North against slavery and angered Southerners. It appeared that the abolitionists were on a collision course with the South, whose economy depended on slave labor.

    Another article in the newspaper reported that Michigan had been admitted as the twenty-sixth state of the Union on 26 January 1837. It came into the Union as a Free State to balance the admission of Arkansas as a Slave State on 15 June 1836. After discussing their concerns about the growing national controversy over the slavery issue with other guests in the parlor, the Coles retired for the night. Although Richard was dead tired from the day’s long ride, sleep was slow to come because his mind was filled with the conversation about the slave controversy that was spreading across the Nation. He finally fell asleep and slept like a log on the feather bed in the boarding house.

    Richard, William, Littleton and Josiah got up well before dawn on Tuesday 26 April 1837, determined to get to Huntsville before the end of the day. They rode hard, passed through Decatur, and crossed the Muscle Shoals River mid-morning. They pressed on towards Huntsville and the trip was made without incident. They were relieved to see Huntsville in the distance as the sun was just beginning to set in the west. Their first stop was a livery stable on the edge of town. After unsaddling and caring for their horses, they made their way, with their saddle bags and guns in tow, to Mrs. Douglas’ boarding house, which had been recommended by the proprietor of the stable. They got a good night’s rest and ate a hearty breakfast the next morning before leaving the boarding house.

    Richard and his father walked to The U. S. General Land Office. It was located two blocks east of the boarding house on the south side of the street, which was already filled with horses, buggies, and wagons. Littleton and Josiah went the other direction back to the livery stable to check on the horses and get them ready for the return trip back home.

    Richard and William arrived at the Land Office soon after it opened and took their place in the already-long line of settlers, who were anxious to apply for Patents on their land on the Alabama frontier. They waited for an hour or more before it was their turn to talk to the clerk handling the Patent registrations. Richard completed the application for the Patent on his land and handed it with fifty silver dollars to the clerk. The clerk processed Richard’s application and gave him a receipt for the Patent Fee³⁷ and Certificate No. 11458, certifying that he had patented his forty-acre tract at the rate of one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre.³⁸ Richard was now the proud owner of forty acres of land in Fayette County, Alabama!

    Huntsville, Alabama Receiver’s Office Receipt

    IMAGE%201%20Huntsville%2c%20Alabama%20Receiver%27s%20Office%20Receipt.jpg

    Receipt No 11458 issued by the Receiver’s Office at Huntsville, Alabama, on 27 April 1837 to Richard W. Cole of Fayette County, Alabama, for fifty silver dollars in payment of the North West Quarter of the North West Quarter of Section 24 in Township No. 14 of Range 11 West, containing 40 acres, at the rate of One Dollar and twenty-five cents per acre.

    Huntsville, Alabama Land Office Certificate

    IMAGE%202%20Huntsville%2c%20Alabama%20Land%20Office%20Certificate.jpg

    Certificate No. 11458 issued by the Land Office at Huntsville, Alabama, on 27 April 1837, to Richard W. Cole, of Fayette County, Alabama, certifying his purchase of the North West Quarter of the North West Quarter of Section 24 in Township No. 14 of Range 11 West, containing forty acres.

    William paid fifty silver dollars and completed the application for a Patent on the 40.08 acres he had selected near Richard’s land. As they walked out of the Land Office, Richard proudly clutched his Certificate and the Receipt for his payment, which officially made him the first individual to own the land that had been ceded by the Creek Indians to the Federal Government. The Land Office had been swamped with applications for Patents and it would be over two years before Richard and William received the Patents on their land.

    Littleton and Josiah were waiting for Richard and William outside the Land Office with their horses saddled and ready for the return trip home. Richard proudly showed them his patent papers and exclaimed I’m now a land owner in Fayette County. On their way out of town, William stopped at a large mercantile store to buy food for the return trip and a surprise gift for Mary. He purchased several yards of brightly colored blue and white cloth, a spool of white thread, and a card of white buttons for her to make a special Sunday dress.

    Richard was awed by the hustle and bustle of the large town and was glad when they passed the marker at the edge of town announcing that Triana was just sixteen miles west down the heavily-traveled wagon road. They had hoped to make it back across the Muscle Shoals River to Summenville before dark, but decided to stop at Triana because the sun had already begun to set as they rode into town. They boarded their horses in a livery stable south of town and spent a restful night in the boarding house next door, happy that they were on their way back to Fayette County.

    They decided to get an early start for home and left Triana several hours before dawn Thursday morning, hoping to reach Jasper before nightfall. They arrived in Decatur before the sun was fully up and ate breakfast in a small café in the center of town. After breakfast, they rode hard until they stopped for an early lunch by a slow-moving stream. With their horses now somewhat rested, they got back on the wagon road and again pushed their horses to the limit. Darkness caught them before they reached Jasper. They were bone tired, and their horses were too. They stopped and camped for the night a short distance south of the road. Richard didn’t then know it, but a time would come when it would be common for him to spend many hours in the saddle and ache all over as he dismounted and camped for the night.

    William woke Richard and the others before daybreak Friday morning to the smell of fresh coffee, boiling in the old, tin coffee pot placed on the hot coals at the edge of the campfire. They saddled their horses and were back on the road before eating breakfast. It wasn’t long before they crossed a branch of the Sipsey River and rode into Jasper. They had breakfast at an inn at the southern edge of town and rode towards the junction with the road to Tuscaloosa with the all too-vivid memory that it was on this stretch of road that they had met the four rough-looking riders during the second day of their journey to Huntsville. They met no one on the road this day, but were especially careful when they selected a secluded spot to camp for the night. The next day was uneventful as well and they camped for the night just north of Lost Creek at the same place they had camped at the end of their first day on their trip to Huntsville.

    They woke up early Sunday morning and Richard was excited that they would be home before dark. They found and entered the old Indian trail on the western side of the wagon road and rode without stopping until the trail entered the long narrow meadow east of the North River. After resting their horses and eating a quick lunch by the beaver pond, they mounted their horses and Littleton led them single file through the dense woods between the meadow and home. They again crossed the North River without incident and it was a little before dusk when the men rode out of the woods with their farm in sight.

    Someone must have been watching for them. By the time they reached the corral, the entire family was there to welcome them home. After greeting their family, the men unsaddled their horses, put their gear in the barn, and emptied a full bag of oats into the old, weathered feeding trough at the edge of the corral. As they made their way to the porch, the men began sharing their experiences on the trip. They were especially animated when they shared how they had been stopped by the four strangers on the road to Jasper. William surprised Mary with the material for that new Sunday dress and Richard proudly showed everyone the Certificate and Receipt for the Patent on his land. It had been a long and difficult journey—one that Richard would always remember.

    The Coles were Methodists and faithfully attended the Pleasant Hill Methodist Church about one and one-half miles from Berry, Alabama. The church had been organized in 1833 with Benjamin Jones, William Cole Jr., Jesse Freeman, Thomas Whitson, and Robert Davis as charter members. The church met on the first floor of a two-story frame building shared with the Masonic Lodge. It had wooden benches without backs. The men and women sat on different sides of the church and members’ slaves, who chose to do so, attended the church and sat at the back. Services often lasted all day.³⁹ It was there that Richard met a young girl named Eliza Jane Jones, who was born on 11 July 1816, in Wayne County, Kentucky.⁴⁰

    Eliza’s father, Benjamin Elliott Jones, was an exhorter in the church.⁴¹ He had served as a volunteer from Wayne County, Kentucky, during the War of 1812. When the war broke out, he volunteered with Captain Micah Taul’s Mounted Company of Kentucky Militia and headed toward Fort Defiance on the American-Canadian frontier. The militia left Wayne County on 24 August 1812, spent the winter at St. Marys, Ohio, and returned to Wayne County in March. Although they never met the British in battle, they were welcomed home as heroes.⁴²

    Soon after the war ended, Benjamin and his wife, Viney Wallace Jones, left Wayne County and migrated to Alabama. They settled in Lawrence County and later moved to Fayette County. Benjamin began acquiring land and ultimately owned 2,500 acres with slaves to plant and harvest cotton. ⁴³ Benjamin’s parents, Reverend Elliott Jones and his wife Elizabeth Wade Jones, left Kentucky some five years later in 1822 and settled in Lawrence County, Alabama.⁴⁴

    Benjamin Jones and William Cole, Jr. were close friends and Benjamin was pleased when William’s son, Richard, began courting his daughter Eliza. Richard and Eliza were married in 1839 ⁴⁵ at the Pleasant Hill Methodist Church. It was a large wedding with all of Richard’s and Eliza’s families and many of their friends and slaves in attendance. Richard’s sister, Sarah, was Eliza’s Maid of Honor and Richard’s brother, Josiah, was his Best Man. Eliza’s grandfather, Reverend Elliott Jones, was a Methodist-Episcopal lay minister. He performed the marriage ceremony and said that he tied the knot tight enough to last a lifetime. It did.

    In the fall of 1839, Richard rode to the post office at Clear Creek with hopes that he would have a letter from Washington City, containing the Patent on the land he purchased during his trip to Huntsville in April 1837. He did. The long-awaited letter from Washington City had finally arrived! He eagerly opened the envelope and in it was his Patent, which had been issued on 1 August 1839, and signed on behalf of President Martin Van Buren.⁴⁶ Richard had waited a long time for this day. He proudly held his Patent high in the air and exclaimed to the postmaster and two others in the post office, I got my Patent. I got my Patent. He left the post office, mounted his horse, and quickly headed home to show his Patent to Eliza.

    IMAGE%203%20U.S.%20Patent%20Certificate.jpg

    Patent Certificate No. 11458 issued by the General Land Office of Huntsville, Alabama, on 1 August 1839, to Richard W. Cole for the North West Quarter of the North West Quarter of Section 24 in Township 14 of Range 11 West, containing forty acres.

    119665.png

    2

    LEAVING FAMILY

    Eliza and Richard thought it would be a great adventure to move with Eliza’s father to the Mississippi frontier and planned to do so.

    R ichard had finally received the Patent on his land, but his future would not be spent on that land. The sudden and unexpected death of Eliza’s mother on 29 August 1840, ⁴⁷ devastated her family and forever changed the destiny of Richard, Eliza, and their young daughter, Viney Jane, who had been born almost five months earlier on 11 April 1840. ⁴⁸ Eliza’s mother had taken a fever a few days before her death and quickly became progressively worse despite the efforts of the country physician. Eliza’s father awoke well before dawn Saturday morning to discover his wife’s cold and lifeless body in bed beside him. He quickly awoke his family, told them of their mother’s death, and sent for Eliza, who lived nearby.

    Eliza and Richard were eating breakfast when they heard hurried footsteps outside on their porch followed by a loud knock on the door. It was still dark outside and Eliza couldn’t imagine who would be there at this early hour. She then thought of her mother who had been sick with the fever for days and feared that she

    Enjoying the preview?
    Page 1 of 1