LeRoy Pope

LeRoy Pope or Leroy Pope ( born January 30, 1765 in Northumberland County, Virginia; † June 17, 1844 in Huntsville, Madison County, Alabama) was a prominent American plantation owner, a lawyer and a settler of Madison County, Alabama. He acquired much of the land on which now stands the city of Huntsville, Alabama. Should also be mentioned his role in the formation and early growth of this city, meant that one had called him the " father of Huntsville ."

Early years

Leroy Pope, son of LeRoy Pope, Sr. and Elizabeth Mitchell was born on January 30, 1765 in Northumberland County, Virginia. There he attended school before he moved with his parents to Amherst County, Virginia. It is said that he served during the American War of Independence, and that he was at the siege and the battle of Yorktown while, but no official documents about his tour of duty there.

The South

1790 Pope moved with his friends and relatives in Petersburg, Elbert County, Georgia, where he was an owner of a tobacco plantation. In 1809 he was among the first wave of wealthy settlers of Madison County, Mississippi Territory (now Alabama). There he acquired a large part of the country, which included the highly sought " Big Spring ", where even the pioneer John Hunt had settled in 1805. Hunt, like many other illegal settlers ( squatters eng. ) could not afford to buy his land.

Pope was successful with his petition to the Territorial Parliament, to select his country for the location of Madison County 's seat of government. He named the new city after the Twickenham house in England of his distant relatives Alexander Pope, however, the town was renamed in 1811 in honor of the pioneer Huntsville in Huntsville.

Called LeRoy Pope's mansion, Poplar Grove, was built in 1814, in time for General Andrew Jackson to host on his return home from the Battle of Horseshoe Bend. It was one of the earliest brick buildings in Alabama and represents one of the prominent landmarks in Huntsville above Echols Hill in Twickenham Historic District.

Political career

Pope was a wealthy and successful plantation owners. He also took an active part in the early government and the church leadership of Huntsville and Madison County. In addition, he presided as chief judge ( Chief Justice ) of the first district court and was one of the founders of the first Episcopal Church in Huntsville, founded in 1830. Parliament also appointed him as Commissioner for the Planters ' and Merchants ' Bank of Huntsville, Alabama 's first banking corporation and for the Indian Creek navigation Company.

Family

He was married to Judith Sale, daughter of Cornelius Sale and Jane Dawson, of Amherst County, Virginia. His daughter Matilda married Pope John Williams Walker, who was Alabama 's first U.S. Senator and was the mother of LeRoy Pope Walker, first Secretary of War of the Confederate States of America; Percy Walker, Member of the U.S. Congress and several other children. Another daughter, Maria Pope, married Thomas George Percy, Sr., and was the ancestress of such persons as the U.S. Senator Charles H. Percy of Illinois, U.S. Senator LeRoy Percy of Mississippi, the poet William Alexander Percy and the author Walker Percy.