Jesse Wilson and the founding of the town we call Montevallo

Lucretia Wilson Cunningham,  niece of Jesse Wilson, and wife of planter Joseph H. Cunningham. Her parents were Benjamin and Hannah ( Harless) Wilson of Montevallo. Benjamin was Jesse's brother and my great great great great grandfather. He remained in Montevallo as did several of his descendants down to myself.  Note: My cousin, a direct descendant of Jesse Wilson, is sending me a photography of his son William Wilson ( mentioned in the article below..he moved to Coosa County, and William's wife Ann Harkins, daughter of Andrew Harkins.  I will put them here as soon as I get them! ) 

Traditionally, in the South, when we speak of the founder of a town, we cite the name of the first male settler, as if he is the only one who made the effort and thus gets all the credit. We know that the place now called Montevallo was the home for hundreds of years of Native American people, as the fresh water springs, the rocky creek, and the fertile fields were ideal for settlement. But for the purpose of describing the founding of an American town, we ignore anything that happened before 1607 and skip forward to the coming of the Europeans and the building of the American nation. 

As a descendant of the Wilson family, the namesake of "Wilson's Hill" ( Montevallo's name before being changed to Montevallo in the 1820's), I feel I have the right and duty to speak up about the practice of designating a "founder" , and to give my opinion on the matter. 

Jesse Wilson and his brother Benjamin were soldiers of General Andrew Jackson and joined his troops for the Battle of Horseshoe Bend in 1813. They liked the area and began a series of scouting trips even before the land opened for frontier settlement. Jesse was probably here staking out a claim as early as 1815.  His lands had to be sold in Madison County, and he had to construct a cabin for his family in a place with no roads for travel except Indian paths, and with hostile Creeks still in the vicinity.  He might have made the final move to what would become Montevallo a bit sooner, but  the winter of 1817 is a safe estimate to place him here with his family in time to plant a crop the following spring. 

That first night in 1817,  when Jesse Wilson laid his head upon his corn shuck pillow, he was not alone. In fact,  he was very much not alone. With him was his wife Elizabeth,  two sons ( William and Jesse ),  and seven daughters ( Jane, Nancy, Lucretia, Elizabeth, Hannah, Lydia, and Martha).  Later another daughter, Mariah, would be added to complete his family.

But we here note that, among those present that first night, we should not forget  Charles, Nelly, Andrew, Westley, Isaiah, Elmira, Emily, Calvin, Rachel, Fanny, Mary,  Moses, Spencer, and London,  African Americans brought with the family in bondage as property.  Each of them laid their heads upon their corn shuck pillows also when the sun set, and therefore must be given credit as founders and "first settlers" of the town of Montevallo.

I find that by counting the members of the family in 1817, Jesse and his family numbered eleven.  By counting the members of the African Americans whom he brought with him, the number is fourteen. Thus we can say that our town had, on the first day of its pioneer settlement, a population of twenty-five.  Jesse Wilson’s name may be on the historic marker in front of the CVS store, and the tradition of naming a single "founder" is well established, but today we should remember  that fourteen African Americans as well as Jesse and his wife and children were all present since "day one, " and all must be given credit as the first settlers of our beautiful mountain-valley village. 

I pause here to pay homage to Montevallo teachers such as Blanche Coger and Barbara Belisle who inspired me as a junior high student to develop a life-long love of history. Emily V. Pendleton taught us in advanced summer school classes how to do research correctly, and my grandfather’s first cousin Glennie Dee Clark instilled in me her love of the Old South. College professors such as David Morgan and Reuben Triplett and Justin Fuller helped me to become a careful student of social studies, and to rethink how history needs to be rewritten sometimes to reflect changing methods and additional truths.

Montevallo's pioneer Jesse Wilson was not a calm person by nature. He was known to drink, play cards, gamble, and get into fist fights.  The Wilson brothers and sisters seemed always to be on the edge of civilization. Jesse and his older brother Benjamin, his sisters Lucretia Hancock, Elizabeth Lawler, Nancy Baker, and Hannah Frost and their husbands, would move to a frontier location, clear the land, build log houses and barns, and wait for those less concerned with the dangers of the wilderness to appear. The families would then "sell out" and resettle in a location further west. They began in Burke County, North Carolina, pausing in the hills of Tennessee somewhere near Knox County, then moved west to Anderson County by 1800, to Rutherford County by 1806,  to Madison County, Alabama by 1808, and finally dropped down to Shelby County by 1817 after the Creek Wars.

Jesse Wilson built his cabin “on a large bluff above the big spring near an old Indian clearing.”  More than one location has been named as the site of his home place.  The “big spring” has finally once and for all been determined to be the one near Montevallo Cemetery on what was known in recent years as the Themonge Place. The Big Spring is still there. Jesse Wilson built his cabin there. His son William Wilson lived there with his family until 1832 when he moved to Coosa County. Jesse's daughter was buried ( with a tombstone) in what became the Montevallo Cememtery. So was Elizabeth, Jesse's wife, in 1830. So was another daughter. Old Montevallo was located in the middle of the present cemetery on the hill above the Wilson Graves. Early stories of Montevallo place a Masonic Lodge, a school house, a church, and some business stores there. The log cabin Jesse built would have been a suitable distance between the Big Spring and the beginnngs of his plantation cemetery. The case of the first location of Montevallo has been settled. The plantation house, thought to have been constructed by William Wilson about 1825 on the same property, has been torn down.

Jesse was more than just a rough backwoodsman.  He represented Shelby County as member of the House in the 2nd Session of the Alabama Territorial Legislature in St. Stephens in 1818.  Jesse also represented Shelby County when Alabama became a state in 1819 at the First Annual Session in Huntsville in October-December.  His political career was just beginning. 

By 1819, Jesse was in the process of moving to Dallas County, Alabama, to be near the new State Capital city of  Cahawba, and to participate in the founding of Selma, but his health was failing.  He actually wrote his Last Will in Montevallo in June of 1820, relocated to a farm near Selma, and died there in September of the same year.  He was 44 years old. Mrs. Wilson died ten years later. She and her daughter Jane Wilson McQuirter, wife of Francis McQuirter, are buried in the Montevallo cemetery.  Jane McQuirter's tombstone is the oldest marked grave there.  Six of Jesse's eight daughters died as teenagers. Jesse's son William was so concerned about his sisters dying young that he made his children bathe every day in cold well water in the belief that doing so would make them stronger.

I stood at the grave of Jesse Wilson on a bleak windy day in 1996 on a bluff in the countryside outside of Selma, Alabama and pondered the journeys of this man who was partly responsible for my life taking place in Montevallo.  A single large obelisk marks his resting place along with three of his daughters. No other graves are there, as it was intended as the beginning of a private family cemetery on the lands he had purchased near the new city. A new housing development stood nearby. Although Jesse Wilson had been travelling for many years, the move to Dallas County would be the end of his quest for taming the wilderness and developing a political career.  His two sons inherited his farm lands and city lots, but they also inherited their father's desire to move on.  William sold his part and moved to Coosa County, and son Jesse went to Texas.  I guess in a way their father would be proud of that.