There were three major entry
points of the early settler in Walker County:
1) Down the coast
through the Carolinas, across Georgia, into Alabama and into
Walker County.
2) Dropping further down to
Tuscaloosa and later up the Byler Road.
3) Across the mountains into
Tennessee and back into this area.
The Romayne
family was originally in England and left after the Battle of
Roses, fleeing for their lives after the House of York was
victorious. They went to Holland shortly after 1471. One
Claas Kuyper
Janse Romeyn
(Dutch spelling) was a sea captain in the service of the Dutch
government, engaged in trade to Chile and South America. He
resigned his commission and in 1660 came with his family to New
Amsterdam. He had two sons, John and Albert. John had five
sons and this is my lineage . The
family name is spelled Romeyn,
Romayne, Romaine,
Romine. All of these are the
descendants of Janse
Romeyn. Most of the family remains
in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.
Layton
Romines was born April, 1766 in Loudon
Co.,Virginia
He and wife Rose Canterberry was a
part of the move through the mountains and into Tennessee.
My first ancestor into Walker
County was James H. Romine who was born in 1791 in
Sevier
County, Tenn. to parents Layton
and Rose Cantaberry
Romines. He married Nancy
Birdwell, daughter of John and Mary
Allen Birdwell, on May 9, 1812, in
Sevier
County. The presiding minister was James
Cantaberry, relative to Layton’s wife, Rose. James died
March 28, 1873, at Holly Grove, Alabama and is buried in the
Boshell
Cementery at Townley.
James was in the War of 1812
under Capt. James Reid Co., Steele’s Regiment, Tennessee
Militia, discharged at Fort Deposit, Alabama, on April 28,
1814. He was given a land grant Oct. 13, 1836 of 100 acres at
Holly Grove, Alabama,
signed by Andrew Jackson, President.
James had eleven children and
their marriages connected many of the early families:
McClelan,
Boshell, Chaney, Stover, Harville,
Guttery, Comer, Myers, King, McClain
