The Call of Cahaba:
A Tale of Five Families
Return to Genealogy Home Page
Visit the Old Cahawba Restoration Project website
E.mail the site director of the Cahawba Restoration Project: Lderry@mail.preserveala.org

When the movers and shakers of the Alabama Territory knew it was going to become a state and that the capital would be the new city of Cahaba, they sent advertising that appeared in major magazines and newspapers all over the country and even into other parts of the world.  What was the call of Cahaba?  Was it merely money?  Was it the appeal of the ground floor, of getting in on the start of something new?  Was it the thrill of the unknown?  Was it simply a place to be free, to be on one's own?  We may never know, but a new nation was giving birth to a new state, and thousands of families would answer that call over the early years of nineteenth century Alabama.  And as they moved into that beautiful land they would all call home, some of their children would marry each other and become our people.

My objective is sharing this page is to illustrate the number of intermarriages of the children of the following five families.  Today,  13 Feb 2001, I discovered at least one of these (intermarriages heretofore unknown to me) at a new-found cousin's webpage, http://www.phaenom.com/roark/jesse.htm#top.  As there are several of the children, still, whose spouses are not yet known to me, especially in the case of Ezekiel and Sarah Wilson, it is quite possible the number of intermarriages could have been even greater.

Of these five families--John and Jane (Walker ) Gwin, Jesse and Nancy (Morris) Roark, Nathaniel and Jane (Jones) Wilson, Ezekiel and Sarah (Rasco) Wilson, and John and Mary (Miles) Basset, four of their surnames are mentioned--some extensively--in the personal diary of Rev. Cotten of the Methodist church in Cahaba where most of them did attend and they may have all attended at one time or another.

Generation One, Family A: John Gwin and Jane Walker, newlyweds (8 Apr 1812) in Blount County, Tennessee, heard Cahaba calling and headed south. Intermarriage Summary:  Of 9 known children, 1 married into family B, 2 married into family C, and 2 married into family E.

Generation One, Family B: Jesse Vaughn Roark and his sweetheart Nancy Ann Morris responded from somewhere along the northern border of South Carolina.  Married there about 1805, they'd have been 15-year veterans of the ranks of the married when Alabama was born in 1820.  Intermarriage Summary: Of 9 known children, 1 married into family A, 1 married into family C, and 1 MAYBE married into family D.

Generation One, Family C:  The Wilson brothers heard it, too, perhaps also from the South Carolina wilds. Nathaniel BurdineWilson and his bride Jane Jones, married 4 Jan 1816, agreed that the place to go was this new capital county of Dallas.  Intermarriage Summary:  Of 11 known children, 2 married into family A, 1 married into family B, and 1 grandchild married into Family E.

Generation One, Family D: His brother, Ezekiel Burdine Wilson and his young wife Sarah Harrell Rasco, evidently in complete concurrence, joined them in their quest.  Intermarriage Summary:  Of 1 (maybe 2) known children, 1 may have married into Family E.

Generation One, Family E: And from the southern shores of England, most of the fourteen children of John JamesLouis BassetandMary Miles packed their sea bags and followed the sun into the promise of Alabama. John James and Mary  married 13 Jun 1803, so they'd been married 17 years already when Alabama became a state. Whether or not they came with their children is not known to me.  There were no Bassets in Dallas Co. in the 1830 census, so they all arrived sometime after 1830.  Charlotte Basset (Mrs. Fred) Cheeseman's children in the 1850 census close the gap to between 1836, when George was born in England, and ca. 1844, when Arthur was born in AL.  And the marriage of Sarah Gwin to Louis Basset in 1841 narrows the window even more.  Intermarriage Summary:  Of 14 known children, 2 married into family A, and 1 grandchild married into Family A/C.