Dear Gail, I didn't grow up here, so much of my information comes through reading, except for the stories that were told to me by my father-in-law. My father-in-law was born in Murray Cross (I never knew it was Murray Cross...I always thought it was MARY Cross, since that's how he pronounced it! :] ) and his family lived in the Ball Play, Pollard's Bend, and Leesburg areas while he was growing up, and before he was born. He was a member of the Cherokee County Historical Society for a 5 year stretch and he did quite a bit of research on the Rains' and other allied families. He has taken me to cemeteries and places in the area and told us stories about the family. Dabney Rains and his wife Barbary White Rains and their 10 children came from Elbert Co., GA to Cherokee Co., AL about 1837. From the Cherokee County Ancestral Homestead book, in 1851 Dabney and Ignatius (Ignatius was his #3 son) are located where Hwy 150 is, at just about the curve, nearest the Coosa River. We know they were in the area earlier, as they are listed in the 1840 census for Cherokee County. John W. Rains was the oldest son and he was located at Blue Pond. John's wife, Lucinda Hicks Rains, was recorded as dying in 1860 in the Sarah R. Espy diary and she stated that she could hear the wailing of the family at the burial site, though a mile distant. There are no marked graves for John and Lucinda Hicks Rains, so we can only guess that they were buried within a mile of the Thomas Espy home in 1860. John died in 1873 (having remarried to Mrs. Susan A. Machen, the widow of Thomas Machen), and in that year he was also the post master for Leesburg. John and Lucinda Rains' son, Josiah Johnson Rains, and his wife Susannah T. Payne Rains (daughter of John Payne and Francis Jackson Hall Payne) and the next 3 generations of Rains family were buried at Union #3 Baptist Church which is located in Ball Play. My father-in-law grew up in Pollard's Bend, near Dixon Shop, and it is recorded that his uncle, Lonnie Rains (James Leon Rains) ran the store at one time. My father-in-law has shown me many things off of this road from his childhood (Dixon Shop is located at the intersection of Hwy 20 and Hwy 7). The Street and Garner families lived in Ball Play and came from GA as well. The Street/Garner family took a train from Buford, GA to Rome, GA where they boarded a flatboat and traveled down the Coosa River and got off at Ball Play Landing. Milton O. Street married Louisa B. Garner and Milton's brother, Alonzo, married Louisa's sister, Elmina Jane Garner. Each of these families were married with children so it must have been quite an entourage! There was a Davis Ferry which carried people from Ball Play side of Etowah County into the Cherokee County side of Pollard's Bend. I think it was later known as McClesky Landing. At Murray Cross was the Croft Ferry and it may be that this was one of the ferries that many of the early 1800 Cherokees might have taken, as there was a well traveled road that went from the Murray Cross area into Owls Hollow, which I believe may have been a hiding place for many Cherokees, since it led to the most northern section of what we know as Turkey Town. Much of Turkey Town was most likely located in the Coats Bend area, but as John Awbrey stated, there seems to be some difference of opinion about where it existed as far as what the Cherokee stated, and what the "white man" stated where it existed. In reading about the travels of John Ross and those he met with, I believe that he most likely traveled on the route known as Hwy 411 because he traveled back and forth to Rome quite a bit. Knowing that other prominent Cherokee lived along this route (such a Vann, Ridge, and my ancestor, Judge James Daniel), makes it more likely that Turkey Town was also along this route. However, the Cherokee removal was in 1838 and after that date we no longer had the Cherokee moving back and forth along this route and in the Turkey Town area, so the names and exact locations would be lost to those who moved in later, which is probably why we don't know exactly. There seem to be 2 points in Coats Bend where ferries may have been located. One would have taken a person from Coats Bend into Ball Play, and the other would have taken a person from Coats Bend into Hokes Bluff, which is where Appalachian Hwy crosses the river right at the old Coats home. I'm not very familiar with any ferries for that area, but it seems as though there were roads that led up to the river on both sides, so it seems to be a logical place for one anyway! :) I know that there was a Trippe Ferry, as it was mentioned in Sarah R. Espy's diary (one of her daughters married a Trippe) so it most likely went from around the Leesburg area into Pollard's Bend. Maybe John Awbrey knows better than I do about the precise area. There was also a Wood's Ferry and an Adam's Ferry that were in Pollard's Bend, but I don't know their precise location either. I just know that Mr. Rains spoke of taking the ferries often, and now that many of them are no longer in use and/or there is no bridge there, many of the families that were connected by these ferries were no longer connected in later generations. This is all my limited knowledge can conjure up for you. I hope some of it helps. Blessings, Jill Watters Rains Gail Moore wrote: > Dear Jill, > In 1860-1890 would this Ferry have taken travelers also from Gadsden, AL to Ceder Bluff, AL or Centre, AL to visit kin? > Also what more can you tell me please about this area? > I had Cothrum's {Cockrum's} Cothran's in that area of AL. during this timeframe. > Gail