John Dabney Terrell, Sr.

John Dabney Terrell, Sr. (1775–1850), surveyor and planter, was born in Bedford County, Va., and died in Marion County, Ala. He is the son of Revolutionary War veteran, Captain Harry Terrell, and the grandson of Joel Terrell from Richmond, Virginia, a man of Quaker ancestry.

John's father, Captain Harry of Hanover Court House, Va., served in the Continental army, worked the land as a planter and bought enslaved persons of African descent. He eventually moved with his family from Virginia into North-Carolina, and after a short stint in Lower Sauratown, an abandoned Indian village on the Dan River in northeastern Rockingham County, he moved to Pendleton District (now Pickens and Anderson Counties), South Carolina, where he settled and farmed a plot of ground along the Big Eastatoe Creek. Being a veteran of the Revolutionary War, he was entitled to land grants, but it wasn't until after Harry's death in 1798 that some of his children applied for a land bounty for his service in the Revolutionary Army. After the death of John's father, John D. Terrell uprooted thence and moved with his family into Franklin County, Georgia, and after failed business ventures there, he moved with his family in ca. 1814 into Marion County, Alabama, (then known as Tuscaloosa County) in what was then the Alabama Territory, where he built a plantation near the Military Ford along the Buttahatchee River, immediately south of present-day Hamilton, Ala. (formerly called Toll Gate), and seven miles north of Pikeville. In 1813, John Dabney Terrell, Sr. had been given Power of Attorney to apply for a land warrant on behalf of himself and his siblings. In 1817, they were allotted 5,333 acres of land, twenty-three hundred of which was in the State of Ohio, and was sold by them for fifty cents per acre.^[1] After the War of 1812, it is said that John D. Terrell, Sr. accommodated the troops of General Andrew Jackson while he was constructing the military road from Natchez to Nashville and had camped at the Military Ford of the Buttahatchee River, a place along the route. This place afforded travelers with a rock and sand bottom for easy crossing.^[2]

In northern Alabama, John D. Terrell, Sr. soon became one of the principal persons of the State, being sent to the Alabama Constitutional Convention in 1819 from Marion.^[3] He was a signatory to Alabama's first Constitution,^[4] and was the first Senator from the County to the State Legislature in 1819. In 1822, John served as a State Representative from Marion County. In those formative years, he acted as the first Marion Territorial judge beneath an old oak tree, and as such, he is said to have administered the sworn oath of office to all county officers at the Cotton Gin Port (a Chickasaw Indian trading post located on the east bank of the Tombigbee River), which was then a part of Marion County (now in Mississippi). He also worked as a surveyor of Chickasaw Indian lands in what are now the States of Alabama and Mississippi, as well as served as U.S. Government Chickasaw Indian Agent for that region of the State under Presidents John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson. Levi Colbert, head chief of the Chickasaw nation, was one of his most respected friends and had supplied John D. Terrell with his first years supply of corn when he was new to the region.^[5] It is said that he was unsuccessful in trying to convince the Chickasaw Indians to resettle in lands west of the Mississippi, until eventually, they were forced by the US government to evacuate in 1837.^[6]

Personal life

John D. Terrell, Sr. was a man of strong religious and political convictions. By religion he was a Baptist, later to join the "Missionary Baptist," while in politics he belonged to the Whig party. In 1795, John married Lydia Briscoe Warren of North Carolina. To this union were born four sons and five daughters. Their eldest son was Edward Garland Terrell (born ca. 1797), although the most illustrious of their children was John Dabney Terrell, Jr. (1804–1885), who served as Probate Judge of Marion County for more than forty years. Both men were slaveholders until the end of the Civil War. John D. Terrell, Sr. is said to have disinherited one of his sons, William Henry Terrell, when his son became a Presbyterian and a Democrat.^[7]

Although a slaveholder, some have suggested that John D. Terrell, Sr. may have put some of his slave property under the name of his son, John Dabney Terrell, Jr., in order to avoid a pending law suit against him in Tennessee, and the subsequent loss of such property. John D. Terrell, Sr. died on the 10th day of May 1850, at the age of seventy-five, whereupon his slave property fell unto his wife, Lydia. At her death in 1853, most of his registered enslaved persons came under the possession of his son, Edward Garland Terrell, while John D. Terrell, Jr. retained his own property in persons. During John Sr.'s lifetime, however, he had also bequeathed some of his slave property to his other children, as can be seen by legal deeds in the Alabama State Archives. At his own request, John D. Terrell, Sr. was buried in a sitting posture within a walnut coffin that was made somewhat like unto a chair replete with a box-like covering, and which coffin was let down into a grave dug deep within one of three Indian mounds located at Military Ford.^[8] He was buried while draped in a panther vest (given to him by an Indian chieftain), along with a blanket that was spread over his shoulders, as well as other accessories (e.g. a gun and a water bucket and dipper, wash pan and hand towels), as was customary amongst some Native American Indians.

The old Terrell homestead and plantation now lay in ruins, but is said to have been located just off Interstate Hwy. 22 (US 78), where it crosses the Buttahatchie River on the way into Hamilton, where the build-up for the town begins, near the Indian Mounds and the new park that was constructed there.

Correspondence by Jno. D. Terrell to Alabama Territorial Governor, Wm. W. Bibb

Alabama Territory Marion County 31st July 1818 Sir: The rise of certain occurrences induces this note. Its nature will preclude the necessity of apology. The ordinance and acts of Congress with those acts of the Territorial legislature which appears to control elections we have noticed; last winter five families only were resident within this County;[a] at present we exhibit towards a hundred voters, comparing the acts of the last session which gave to this country a member (with) of Congress. The question becomes extremely complex: The legal residence required of candidates & electors, the payment of taxes and the vested land title does prove to be out of the question. If this position be correct, how follows a lawful election – an opinion seemed admissible, that the Legislature intended a remission of those three requisitions, namely, a three years residence for a candidate, one for an elector, the possession of land titles, the payment of taxes &c., but that an actual residence of some sort was indispensable. Even this extended view of the question was at the election held for this county placed under foot. The county court, pursuant to law, appointed managers, one of whom alledging (sic) indisposition was released & by consent of the sheriff & candidates another appointment was made. These managers were not sworn, the clk (clerk) acted without obligation, save that of virtue. I have recd. information, the truth of which cannot be questioned, that men from Tennessee, from Kentucky, as well as residents from other Territorial Counties did vote. The candidate elect is known by all to have voted and actually resides in Franklin County. I have two views in soliciting your opinion and instructions on this subject; the one is to reconcile my own impressions. If on the ground I have trespassed I look not for a reply. The other is as the question may relate to Major Davis the […] who as a man of sentiment, independence & cleavernness (sic) possesses my full confidence. He is in Tennessee and is not expected here until the removal of his family on the commencement of fall; was Davis here, no question would be asked. The Major’s depty (deputy) alledges (sic) that by the principle to subscribe the name of Davis to the official transactions of the depty (deputy). The features of the Election is (sic) before you. What report can the returning office make? The candidates did consent that all men should be permitted to vote who were of lawful age; [those] who had made a crop & were actually resident here, should the answer of the Executive be deemed proper, your note addressed to me, directed to be deposited at Peachlands on Bigbee[b] within the Choctaw land early as may suit your convenience will really be acknowledged. Accept Sir the assurances of my high consideration &c. Jno. D.Terrell Address: His Excellency William W. Bibb St. Stephens Endorsements: Jno. D. Terrell 31 July 1818 P.S. The present situation of this county precludes political information – the news of the day would be quite acceptable. J.D.Te Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page). Notes: Marion County then comprised all of present-day Lamar County, Ala., all of Monroe County, Miss., east of the Tombigbee, and portions of Lowndes County, Mississippi. The sense here is to the Tombigbee River

External Links

• Indian Mounds along the Buttahatchee River

Biographies

• History of Alabama and Dictionary of Alabama Biography by Thomas M. Owen, s.v. Terrell, John (1978, ISBN 0-87152-259-4)

References

1. Emma Dicken, Terrell Genealogy, San Antonio 1952, p.113.
2. John M. Allman III (ed.), An Abbreviated History of Marion County, Ala. - The Marion County Historical & Genealogical Societies, Alabama Tracks vol. XI #4 1992.
3. The Heritage of Marion County, Alabama, vol. 47, Clanton, Al. 2000, p. 1
4. The Journal of the Convention of the Alabama Territory begun July 5, 1819. See: Also published in the Alabama Historical Quarterly, vol. XXXI.
5. Dr. W.A. Evans of Aberdeen, MS., Aberdeen Examiner July 2, 1936 (based upon testimony of John Mitchell Allman III, The Heritage of Lamar County, Alabama).
6. In a written report communicated to the US Senate on January 15, 1827, which report was dated November 2, 1826 and where it mentions the failed Choctaw negotiations in that month, as well as the Chickasaw negotiations in the previous month, it is written: "The special agent, Colonel John D. Terrell, seems to have been active and zealous in communicating with the chiefs and leading men of the nation, endeavoring to prepare their minds for a cession of their lands. But it seems to have no other effect than to prepare them for an organized opposition to the views of the Government, through the influence before observed..." The report was signed by General Thomas Hinds and General John Coffee.
7. Based on a family sketch written for the Alabama State Archives on 24 July 1916 by John Mitchell Allman II (b. 1859).
8. These Indians mounds are located in lands of Section 14, in Township 11, of Range 14W, on the State Highway Map of Marion County. They can be accessed by driving along I-22 (US 78) in Marion County, and by taking exit 16 which then merges onto US 43 N. Drive along US 43 N for 1.8 miles, then turn right (east) onto Old Indian Mound Road.