-----Original Message----- From: MWal608508@aol.com <MWal608508@aol.com> To: cmccoy@frontiernet.net <cmccoy@frontiernet.net> Date: Tuesday, September 07, 1999 4:52 PM Subject: JOHNSON AND POWELL >Cindy, > > I had contacted you about transcribing records from the Monroe Journal, >but I also have a partial photocopy of a book about the Powell and Johnson >families which settled in Monroe Co. Here is a section from this book. > > > > 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. 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 GeologicalSurvey 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 Childre, as well as the grave >of David Packers 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 fo 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 Johnstons 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 douby >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. > > > > >I will send additional info from this book from time to time. Hope this >might help someone, > >Thanks, Marsha Davis Wallace >