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Excerpts from the Monroe Journal Centennial Edition 
supplemental issue   May 1, 1969
by  Marsha Davis Wallace

Patrick Family Came to Alabama from South Carolina in 1700's
The Patrick family came to Alabama from South Carolina, evidently in the 17th century, and chose Midway in the northern part of Monroe county to build their home. The first home, built of logs, two large bedrooms with an open hall dividing them and a large kitchen, separated from the house, housed this old family...   Names of the parents of the Monroe County Patrick family are unknown. They had three sons, Hiram, Milligan and Wiley.  Hiram married Didwa Cotton, June 14, 1838, and they had several children, all deceased with the exception of Vera, who now makes her home in Canoe. Milligan was married Dec., 1847, to Linsey Rumbly,  she preceded him in death and he took as his wife, Martha Emmons in 1854.  To this union, three
children were born, Annie, Fannie and Richard.  The girls were never married and operated a hat shop on the square in Monroeville.  Richard studied medicine and was married to a Miss McGowin.  They were parents of three children, Lloyd, Albert and Frank.  Wiley A. Patrick was married to Jane Parmelia Brooks and they were parents of seven children:  William Hiram, John, Samuel, Jane, Rebecca, Mary and Luke.   William Hiran (Dick) Patrick married Amanda Hardee Sept. 6, 1866.  They had a child, a daughter, who married John Estie Cobb.  Following his first wife's death he was married to Mrs. Kitty Skinner.  No children were born to this union.  John chose Elizabeth Booker to be his wife and they were married Nov.
6, 1859.  this couple had nine children:  Zenus, John, Jr., Elizabeth, Fannie, Emma, Mattie, Sarah, W. H. and W. R.
Samuel was married to Beatrice Stacey,  Nov. 12, 1882.  The too, had nine children:  Ida, Jane, Susan, :Lucy, Albert, Daisy, Frank, Mary and Rose.  Jane was married to Bryant Hardee, June 2, 1864.  They were the parents of two children, Myra and Molly. Rebecca was married to John Booker, March 9, 1865, and they had two children Whitman and John. Mary, who married William Martin, Sept 25, 1861, was the mother of  several children, Samuel Patrick and William Hiram, were the only two names listed. Luke never married.  Three sons, William H (Dick), John and Samuel, all served with distinction during the "War Between the States".  Samuel ran away at the age of 16 and joined Dick, who was in Captain Tom Riley's Company.  Capt. Tom Riley, was also a Monroe Countain.  The served together under General Forest and Dick was among his troop when Emma Sanson guided the army to a ford when a bridge was burned by the Union soldiers.  Later, when Dick's daughter was born, she was named for Emma Sanson.   One of Dick's favorite stories was his experience in the hills of  Tennessee.  Soldiers were on starvation.  There was meat but no shortening. Finding a section where scalybark trees grew,  the soldiers gathered nuts, cracked and picked out the meat and made cracklin bread.  They found a hog wandering among the trees, eating the nuts, so they caught it, carried it to camp, cooked and ate it with their bread.  A neighbor of Dick's and a
well-known Christian gentleman refused to eat the meat because it was stolen, he said.   However, it wasn't long until the soldiers began pouring gravy on their bread and the companion said, "Dick I believe I will have a little of  the gravy. Vicissitudes and reverses in life followed Dick and following the war his second house was burned to ashes.  However, in those days, one man's trouble was that of his community, and whether it was illness, bereavement, house building or log splitting, neighbors were there to help, both black and white.  And so, it was with the Patrick family, who came to Monroe County
from South Carolina.

From the Monroe Journal Centennial Edition Supplement

1873--J. S. Hines of Evergreen and Miss Hattie Savage were married at Claiborne Oct. 15, 1873.
1873--Col. Bertrand L. Hibbard  and Miss Sallie B. V. Leslie were married in Monroeville April 29.
1873--Thomas Thompson and Olivia Hammons were married near Claiborne September 14.   Chas. J. Torrey, register in chancery, tied the nuptial knot.

Vigilance Committee
At a meeting reported Aug. 30, !861, the Vigilance Committee was named by the officers of the Claiborne Home Guards.  gentlemen to serve on the committee for one month from that date were Harvey Lamber, J. M. Agee, Samuel Busby, Thomas Howard, and Dr. A. B. Arthur.

Cobb family came here from Wales
Govenor Rufus Wills Cobb, born in Ashville, St. Clair County, Alabama, the son of John W. and Catherine (Stevens) Peak Cobb, who settled on the Alabama River in Monroe county.   The Cobb family came from Wales to America, first settling in Virginia, where John W. Cobb was born in 1800.  He moved from Monroe County to Ashville.  He served as a colonel of a regiment in the Creek War under General Andrew Jackson, and twice served as a member of the Alabama Legislature.

HOME GUARD OFFICERS, 1861

1861--Officers elected at a meeting of the Clauselville Home guards June 5, 1861, were W. T. Nettles, W.H. Fountain and M. D. White, judges; W. W. McMillan, captain; Thomas S. Wiggins, first lieutenant; T. J. Stevens, second lieutenant; and T. J. McCants, third lieutenant.  F E Richardson was chairman of the committee to present the preambles and resolutions, which were unanimously adopted.

Commission -- A commission issued by Gov. William W. Bibb of Alabama Territory, appointing Gerald Walthall Creagh a lieutenant of a volunteer company of infantry by the name of the Jackson Blues, was given at the town of Claiborne and stamped with the seal of the Territory April 22, 1818.

Infantry Organized
Claiborne Southerner 1861: The Monroeville company (Infantry) styled in the Monroe Rebels is now regularly organized.  They met on Saturday the 10th inst. and elected officers which resulted as follows: G. G. Mathews, Captain; W. A Duke, 2nd Lieut.; F. M. Jones, Brevet 2nd Lieut.; John M. Parkers, Orderly Sergeant, with balance of officers to be elected later.  The
company will be mustered into service near Camden, Wilcox County, in Col. Beck's regiment. The company is to be armed with double barrel shot guns, which with bayonets, according to high military authority will be very destructive implements of warfare.  From the Monroe Journal Centennial Edition, Dec. 22, 1966, page 3E.

Supplemental Issue of the Monroe Journal, May 1, 1969, Page 5

Article:  Capt. Riley, Born at Pineville Banker, Soldier, Philanthropist Captain Thomas Marcer Riley who was born in 1840 and died only a few months before his 95th birthday used his long life and property for the welfare of others.  Captain Riley was the eldest son of Enoch and Sophronia Autrey Riley, was born at Pineville, and lived in the vicinity most of his life. As a young man he conducted an extensive mercantile business at Riley, Ala. besides tending to large farming interests.  At the time of his death he was president of the Exchange Bank of Beatrice. He enlisted as a soldier in the Civil war in January of 1861 in Monroe County and served under Colonel R. E. Rhodes of the 5th Alabama Infantry. He   was wounded several times on the battle front at Seven Pines, Gettysburg, and Bull Run.  He was among the southern troops who were surrounded at Appomatax.  .... ..At Capt. Riley's funeral, to comply with his pre-expresses wish, his friends draped the casket with a Confederate flag.  He was buried near the site of the Flat Creek Baptist Church that he attended in his youth.

In 1816, John Powell, who apparently was feeling the pressure of the large numbers of newcomers who were flowing into Alabama, took a trip down the Tombigbee River, then through the Cut-off and up the Alabama River to Lower Peach Tree to find more suitable land.  He was accompanied on the trip by two neighbors, a Mr. McCaskey and Donald Johnston [should be Daniel Johnston- error on the newspaper's part]. They also took along 20 slaves, nine horses, a barge and a dug-out canoe.   Near Lower Peach Tree the group was surprised by and Indian attack.  McCaskey and Johnston were killed but Powell escaped. Three years later, in 1819, John Powell sold his land at Oven's Bluff to Henry Slade and then started purchasing land from the Federal Government in Packer's Bend (Monroe County on the west bank of the Alabama River.)   He bought several sections of land.  A cemetery called Powell Cemetery is still located on some of this property and is so marked on current U. S. Department of the Interior Geological Survey maps.  Although no marker can be found for John Powell, it is believed that this was his burial place.  Another cemetery located about one mile south and east of the Powell's cemetary, on the old Slaughter place, contains markers for John's sons Elijah, his wife Elizabeth Slaughter and their Children, as well as the grave of David Packer's wife who died in 1802.  David witnessed the will of John Powell.   The will was drawn up by an outstanding lawyer of that area, John Morrisett.   this will is recorded in Monroe County records. John Powell was the son of William Powell of McIntosh Bluff,  William was given a Spanish Land Grant in 1795 at McIntosh Bluff for lands on the west and east sides of the Tombigbee River.  In his request for the grant, William stated that he had lived on the property for ten years without a title or deed and therefore desired a grant.  He had come to Alabama in 1785 from Effingham County, Georgia (just above Savannah), having owned land in Effingham County on the Ogeechee River. William's land was located at McIntosh Bluff on part of the property now owned by the Olin Corporation.  The land given to John McIntosh by the British in 1775 was down river from William's land by at least a half mile. John Johnston was next neighbor to William Powell, just down river. Johnston was married to Williams's sister Joyce Powell.  below Johnston's was his son-in-law Cornelius Raine.  It was in Cornelius' home that Aaron Burr ate breakfast after his capture at McIntosh Bluff in 1807.   Cornelius property extended to Hell Cat Lake. William Powell was then one of the very first settlers, having arrived in 1785, not only of Washington County but also one of the earliest white men to move into the area that would later (1819) become Alabama.   He had a son Elijah and a son named James.  It is very likely that William was the father, not only of John, Elijah, and James Powell, but also of Theophilus and William Powell,   William owned land on both sides of the river and no doubt traveled freely on the beautiful Tombigbee. John Snowden Powell of Bates Lake at Malcolm, never realized that he spent the best and happiest years of his life within the shadow of the place where his great-great grandfather had put down roots as one of Alabama's very first settlers in 1785.  In fact, a circle was made by the travels of the earlier John Powell who left McIntosh Bluff for Oven's Bluff on the Tombigbee River,   then up the Alabama River to Packer's Bend,  then his son Picnckney moved to Brooklyn in Conecuh co. and his son, John Cary moved to Calvert and his son, John Snowden moved on up to Malcolm.  John Snowden always spoke of his ancestors as being from Brooklyn, never realizing that, although many of his ancestors were from Brooklyn, his oldest Alabama ancestors were from neighboring McIntosh bluff.

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