I18564: Addison C. ALVIS (ABT 1859

Notes

Children: Alvis, Infant Birth : 11 AUG 1889 Salem, Death : 11 AUG 1889 Salem, Washington, Co. IN.

Washington County, Indiana Index to Supplemental Record Marriage Application 1882 - 1890 Inclusive Letters A - Z Inclusive W. P. A. Original Record Located: County Welfare Office Salem Ind Complied by Indiana Works Progress Administration 1940.

County: Washington Name: Addison C Alvis Father: William Mother: Motsinger
Gender: M Age: 28 Book: C-1 Original Source Page: 88

Notes

Cole, Robert Walker; Father: Cole, John Gatewood Mother: Broaddus, Nancy Robinson; Birth Date: 6 October 1813 City: County: State: VA.

^[S1615]

Notes

Mary Cosby, b ca 1662, New Kent, Virginia, named for her sister who burned to death
m _____ Ayles. ^[S3015]

Notes

The most well known death along the "Trace" is the death of Meriwether Lewis, Governor of the (U. S.) Louisiana Territory. This man, famous as a leader of the Lewis and Clark expedition, allegedly committed suicide at Griner's Stand. That part of the Natchez Trace between Nashville, TN & above Florence, AL.

Some believe he was murdered.

The Natchez Road, later called the Natchez Trace, developed in the early 1800s.
Originally, it was a series of linked game trails, latter used by America's First People.
The two major First Peoples that controlled the area through which the Natchez Road ran were the Choctaw and the Chickasaw.

In the early 1800s, many Tennessee and Kentucky farmers would take their farm goods to the lucrative New Orleans market. They built flatboats for their goods. They floated down the Cumberland, Duck and Tennessee Rivers to the Ohio River, then to the Mississippi River and southward to Natchez and New Orleans.

When is was time to return, the flatboats would be sold, or if necessary, abandoned. If they had made a good sale, they might buy a horse for their return trip. If the sale was bad, they might return on foot. In any case, in those early years, the route of choice was the Natchez Trace. When the Kentuckians arrived at Nashville, they would continue to central Kentucky via the "Wilderness Road."

It is these return trips that have made the Natchez Trace famous (or perhaps infamous would be a better choice of words here). There are stories of murders along the Natchez Trace. The farmers would be killed, then disemboweled, their body cavities filled with stones, and then the bodies would be submerged in some nameless creek.

To the farmer, the stands or wayside inns would be a welcome sight. Even the most rude stand could offer some protection and a meager meal.

The most well known death along the "Trace" is the death of Meriwether Lewis, Governor of the (U. S.) Louisiana Territory. This man, famous as a leader of the Lewis and Clark expedition, allegedly committed suicide at Griner's Stand.

The stands shown on our map represent the most well know stands, but be aware that the stands came and went, and some changed names. Not all of these stands existed with these names at the same time. Additionally, in places along the route there were parallel roads. A lower road might be easier in the summer, but less favorable in the early spring.
Bibliography

Davis, William C. A Way Through the Wilderness: The Natchez Trace and the Civilization of the Southern Frontier. HarperCollins Publishers, NY, 1995. ISBN 0-06-016921-4
This is a scholarly and worthy work. Much map information.

Coates, Robert M. The Outlaw Years: The History of the Land Pirates of the Natchez Trace Macaulay Co. 1930. Stories of murder and more along the Natchez Trace. Often found in used books stores. It has been reprinted by University of Nebraska 1986, ISBN: 080326318X and perhaps others.

Daniels, Jonathan The Devil's Backbone: The Story of the Natchez Trace. McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1962. More stories of murder along the Natchez Trace.

"Meriwether Lewis was born in Albemarle County, Virginia, on August 18, 1774, the second child and first son of William and Lucy Meriwether Lewis. His father, who had served as a lieutenant in the Continental Army, died in November 1779 after his horse fell into an icy stream while he was homeward bound. His widowed mother married another Army officer, Captain John Marks, six months later. The two raised Meriwether and his two siblings while managing a 1,000-acre plantation about 10 miles from Monticello (Jefferson's home). The young Lewis was said to have an eye for plants, which was encouraged by his mother Lucy, a noted herb doctor. Colonial Families, Volume III, Meriwether Family, Pages 318-319."

Captain Meriwether Lewis
by Dick Cheatham

"Lewis and Clark." Everyone’s heard of them, especially recently due to the present Bicentennial of their famous expedition. Some people know lots about what they did. But, not many people know Captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark well as unique individuals. I’ll try to draw a clearer picture of Captain Lewis here.

Together with their small party between 1803 and 1806, Lewis and Clark did what none had done before. They were the first people to travel from the United States overland, and often by river, all the way to the Pacific and back. Along the way, they made copious notes on everything of possible interest to President Jefferson and the outside world, losing one man (of just under fifty) due to illness in the process. They took the first tangible steps extending Thomas Jefferson’s vision of an "Empire of Liberty" all the way to the west coast.

Perhaps you don’t believe this country is an "Empire of Liberty" today. That’s a matter of personal opinion, values and knowledge (or ignorance). To the extent it’s not, it’s due to our own choices as citizens, built upon the progressive loss of vision in that dream by American citizens over the past two centuries. Lewis and Clark were believers in that vision. Let’s look at Lewis’ version of it.

Meriwether Lewis was a person with many strengths and some weaknesses. That certainly puts him in good company. He was a Jeffersonian if ever there was one. Growing up a neighbor of Thomas Jefferson’s in Albemarle County, Virginia, Lewis became President Jefferson’s personal secretary after the "bloodless revolution of 1800," living in the President’s House (now called the White House). Lewis was among the handful of people who knew Thomas Jefferson best. He believed, like Jefferson, in the virtue of a democratic republic, one where citizens understand life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness and have the courage and energy to act to defend and extend those things.

Along with his mentor and friend, Lewis opposed a powerful highly centralized government run by and benefiting a small aristocratic elite, which was, by contrast, the preference and goal of Federalists such as Alexander Hamilton. Rather Captain Lewis believed that power should remain diffused among citizens more broadly where it originated and where it belonged.

He was so attached to the original republican idea that, in the French style, he wrote his mother as "Cittizen Lucy Markes." (Spelling was not his forte.) One of his first duties as Jefferson’s secretary was to identify for President Jefferson officers in the United States Army with strong Federalist inclinations. The Army had been packed with such men by the two previous Federalist administrations. The standing (regular) army was far too large and that tree needed to be pruned.

When Lewis opened the west for "these" (as opposed to "the") United States he was not doing so in behalf of some typically European-type land grab. He actually believed, with Jefferson, that he was working to extend the reach of liberty to those areas that might otherwise have fallen into the hands of one of the European monarchies very interested in the area between the Mississippi River and the Pacific Ocean.

Meriwether Lewis was a hero. He was a true republican in the best sense of that term. Sadly, if he is remembered at all today, it’s usually as a guy in a leather outfit on a camping trip fighting grizzly bears.

January 23, 2004

Dick Cheatham [send him mail], a graduate of the pre-co-ed VMI, is a professional speaker. Often portraying Captain Meriwether Lewis, he revives important lessons from America’s past which we have sadly forgotten. Living History Associates, Ltd.

^[S2320]

[111758]
Charlottsville, Albermarle Co.VA

[111759]
Hohenwald, Lewis Co. Tennessee

Notes

Per Joanne Harley They attended Salem Bapt.Church just outside of Bennettsville,SC. I am also related to Ann Vining through her sister, Elizabeth. Possibly another daughter named Martha who married a John Cook and moved to Tenn.

My Southern Family

Addison C. ALVIS

ABT 1859 - ____

ID Number: I18564

Notes

Sources

Molly BAYNE

1763 - ____

ID Number: I91747

Sources

Robert Walker COLE

6 Oct 1813 - ____

ID Number: I66543

Notes

Sources

Mary COSBY

ABT 1662 - ____

ID Number: I79147

Notes

Sources

Elizabeth GARLAND

ABT 1760 - ____

ID Number: I43768

Sources

Hon. Meriwether LEWIS Gov. Louisiana Territory

18 Aug 1774 - 11 Oct 1809

ID Number: I22480

Notes

Sources

Alfred G. SLOAN

Jul 1870 - ____

ID Number: I20110

Sources

Anna VINING

ABT 1770 - 1833

ID Number: I27847

Notes

Sources