True Alabamians
Being born and raised in Alabama, being an Alabamian is close to my heart. I was born in North Alabama before moving to Montgomery as a young child. I lived in Montgomery all my life, before deciding that I wanted to attend the University of Alabama. I have never lived anywhere other than Alabama, and I knew that college was not the time to leave. Alabama is all I know, and I would feel out of place living anywhere else. Alabama is not only all I know, but all my family knows. My family traces back to the beginning of Alabama history, and during this project I realized how big of an Alabamian I really am.
On December 14th, 1819, Alabama beca
me the twenty second state of the United States of America. On April 24th, 1820, Moses Miller, one of my ancestors, purchased land from the general land office, becoming one of the first people to own land in the newly founded state, which is shown in the first image. His land was in northern Alabama, very close to the Tennessee border, which the second image shows is part of the Tennessee river basin. Moses Miller was born on August 14th, 1800, in Virginia, making him just twenty years old when he purchased land in Alabama. His ten children born in Alabama were among the first generation of true Alabamians, making the family significant in Alabama history.
While Moses was not born in Alabama, he did everything else there. He got married in 1924 to Rebecca McGaha, a Tennessee native. He had ten children that were born and raised in Alabama, and he died in Alabama. He even fought in the Confederate army, fighting alongside some of his children, including Burgess Miller who is also in my direct lineage. Moses was a true Alabamian, even if he was not born in the state. He received land just four months after Alabama became a state, and he never left, becoming an Alabamian in every sense of the word.
Moses Miller was one of the first people to live in Alabama as a state, and he created a family that would never leave. Seven generations later, I am still living in Alabama. Moses Miller started a family in a newly founded state, probably scared that he would not be able to survive in this new world, let alone start a family. However, he started a family that still exists in a state that is now almost two hundred years old. While he began the family’s Alabama history, he had no idea that the family would still be living in Alabama almost two hundred years later.
Works Cited
Lucas, Fielding. Geographic, Statistical, and Historic Map of Alabama. 1822. 1:1,900,800. “Geographic, Statistical, and Historical Map of Alabama / drawn by F. Lucas, Jun.; B. Turner, Sc.” WS Hoole Special Collections Library.