Thomas McElderry
Col. Thomas McElderry | |
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| File:1850 McElderry.jpg Portrait of Col. Thomas McElderry, circa 1850; from family photo collection | |
| Member of the Alabama House of Representatives from the 8th district | |
| In office 1828–1829 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 18 January 1790 Leesburg, Loudoun County, Virginia, United States |
| Died | 16 July 1883 Talladega, Talladega County, Alabama, United States |
| Resting place | McElderry Family Cemetery, Talladega County, Alabama |
| Citizenship | United States (1790-1861, 1865-1883) Confederate States(1861-1865) |
| Political party | Whig Party (United States), Democratic Party (United States) |
| Other political affiliations | Southern Rights, American Secessionism |
| Spouse(s) |
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| Children | 12, including George T. McElderry, Capt. John S. McElderry, Hugh McElderry, Achsah McElderry, and Lousia McElderry. |
| Occupation | |
| Military service | |
| Nickname(s) |
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| Allegiance | |
| Branch/service | |
| Years of service |
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| Rank |
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| Unit |
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| Commands | Companies A & B, Talladega Brigade, 25th Alabama Infantry Regiment, Alabama Milita, Confederate Home Guard |
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Col. Thomas McElderry (1790–1883) was an American military officer, frontiersman, slave-owner, successionist, and politician whose lifetime spanned the early American republic through the Reconstruction era. [1] He served alongside General Andrew Jackson and Brigadier General John Coffee, he was also one of the first white settlers in Talladega, Alabama and helped with the Indian Removal that occured in Alabama during the 1810s through the 1830s. He served in several conflicts, including the War of 1812, The Creek War, and the American Civil War. McElderry Station, Alabama is named for him. [2]
Early life
He was born to American Revolutionary War veteran[3] John McElderry and his wife Anna Sinclair. His father John was from Chester County Pennsylvania being born there in 1754. Thomas's paternal grandfather John McElderry born 1721, immigrated to Chester Pennsylvania from Ballymoney Ireland. His mother Ann was born in Loudoun Virginia in 1759 to John Sinclair and Sarah McDowell, the two of them being of English and Irish ancestry. [4] After being raised in Virginia, he moved south, first to Tennessee, later Alabama. [5][6]
Military service
War of 1812
McElderry served in the War of 1812 as a lieutenant in Captain Chile's company of the East Tennessee Militia mounted gunmen, joining in that same year. With the militia company, he conducted frontier fort garrison duties, supply wagon escorts, patrols, and support roles in larger main battle contingents against English supported native armies in the American frontier. Places he would have been during this time would include Fort Strother, Fort Armstrong (Alabama), and the Natchez Trace. [7] [8]
The Creek War
He fought in the Creek War against the Creek Nation and the Red Sticks where he served under then Major General Andrew Jackson. He fought at the Battle of Talladega with Chile's unit of East Tennessee mounted gunmen, Battles of Emuckfaw and Enotachopo Creek, and the Battle of Horseshoe Bend with Tipton's unit of Tennessee mounted gunmen. From his service and personal relationship with Andrew Jackson, McElderry received government issued land grants directly given to him and seceded by Selocta Chinnabby.[9][10]
First Seminole War
Chile's unit was sent with General Andrew Jackson into the Battle of Pensacola (1814) where British and Spanish forces were recieving Creek refugees after the Battle of Horseshoe Bend. McElderry fought in the battle along side General Jackson as a Tennessee Rifleman, earning the rank of Captain. The battle preluded the continuous explusion of Native Americans from the Florida Panhandle. [11]
The Second Creek War
By the 1830's, McElderry was a senior local militia figure in his area of rural Alabama. Signing on as a Major, he participated in the final expulsion of the Creek Nation from Alabama from 1836-37. He organized and commanded local militia units to enforce security and ensure protection of the community during the conflict. When General Winfield Scott arrived to expel the Creek once and for all, along side Opothleyahola and the loyalist Creeks, McElderry assisted the arriving U.S. troops in putting down any Creek resistance in the local area. This included the burning of the Creek villages in Choccolocco and Tallasseehatchee Creek. [12]
The American Civil War
In 1861 at the age of 71, Thomas McElderry came out of retirement and served as a Colonel for the Confederate States, commanding local reserve forces in Talladega and the surrounding areas under Brig. Gen. William Blount McClellan. In this role he commanded companies A and B of the Talladega local militia which operated as part of the Confederate Home Guard. He also worked at the Talladega Camp of Instruction where he trained recruits. [13] Several of his sons served along side him in the Confederate Army, one of which, Capt. John S. McElderry, fell in the Battle of Varnell's Station in Georgia, on May 9th, 1864, being shot trying to aide a wounded sergeant. [14]After the American Civil War, he applied to President Abraham Lincoln for a pardon but the pardon was not received back until after Lincoln's death and President Andrew Johnson was in office. [15]
Political Career
State House Representative
He practiced law briefly and worked as a circuit clerk for the state in 1826 before running for office the next year. Winning election, McElderry served as a state representative for Morgan County, Alabama, from 1828 to 1829. In his time as a representative in the state house, he helped oversee the state authority over native Creek land and saw the development of infrastructure aswell as the building of the state capitol. [16] [17] [18]
Later life and death
After the Creek War, McElderry settled in Chinnabee, a Creek town in present-day Talladega County, Alabama.[19] He acquired land from Chief Chinnabee (Selocta Chinnabby), allowing the chief to continue residing in his log cabin on the property. [20] [21] Returning home to Talladega he worked on his Plantation aswell as atended veterans meetings as shown in the picture above. The land was later renamed from Chinnabee to McElderry. He died at age 93, having had 12 children with three wives (Eliza Boteler 1804-1829, Frances Turner 1815-1846, and Martha-Ann Dozier 1824–1906). [22] [23] [24]
References
- ↑ McElderry Lineages, Heritage Press, Pg. 34-35
- ↑ https://alabamamaps.ua.edu/historicalplaces/text/TalladegaText.pdf?
- ↑ https://archive.org/stream/pennsylvaniaarch24penn/pennsylvaniaarch24penn_djvu.txt [bare URL plain text file]
- ↑ North Alabama Valley Leaves Tennessee Valley Genealogical Society Quarterly, Vol. 15, No. 2, Dec. 1980, pg. 93, https://huntsvillehistorycollection.org/hhc/vl/docs/Valley_Leaves_v15n02.pdf?
- ↑ Daughters of the American Revolution, DAR Genealogical Research Databases, database online, (http://www.dar.org/ : accessed May 21,2016), "Record of JOHN MCELDERRY", Ancestor # A076576.
- ↑ http://historyconnections.info/vf/vfdata/rankin/madison_pioneers/MiscellaneousRecords/SugarsTurnerDescendants.pdf [bare URL PDF]
- ↑ Tennessee, State Library & Archives, https://tslaindexes.tn.gov/military-research/content/thomas-1501
- ↑ Tennessee War of 1812 Widows database, Tennesse State Archives, https://tslaindexes.tn.gov/database-military-records/war-1812-pensioners-tennessee-widows
- ↑ Smith, William J. (1835). War of 1812: A Soldier's Memoir. American Military Press. pp. 122–126. Search this book on
- ↑ http://www.annistonstar.com/the_daily_home/dh_life/chinnabee-gravesite-holds-secrets-of-its-own/article_39e17f3c-1470-11e4-9e6e-0019bb2963f4.html
- ↑ Andrew Jackson Papers: Series 1, General Correspondence and Related Items, 1775–1885. Manuscript/Mixed Material: Henry Dilworth Gilpin to Andrew Jackson, August 20, 1833. Library of Congress, Manuscript Division. Digital ID: maj.01084_0350_0353. Accessed via Library of Congress Digital Collections: Henry Dilworth Gilpin to Andrew Jackson, August 20, 1833 (Library of Congress), https://www.loc.gov/resource/maj.01084_0350_0353/?sp=2&st=image
- ↑ 2nd Creek War: Soldiers who went to War 1836-1837, Department of Archives and History, SG013379, https://www.archives.alabama.gov/research/finding-aids/GRAAH38f.pdf
- ↑ https://www.algenweb.org/talladega/talladega_camp_of_instruction.htm?
- ↑ "General Joseph Wheeler and the Army of the Tennessee", pg. 286, By Du Bose, John Witherspoon, 1836-1918
- ↑ "United States, Civil War Confederate Applications for Pardons, 1865-1867", FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:V4M8-FXN : Sat Jul 26 00:08:45 UTC 2025), Entry for Thomas McElderry, from 1865 to 1867.
- ↑ Alabama House Journal, 1828-29, https://archive.org/details/alabama-house-journal-1828-1829/HJ_1828_1829/page/n1/mode/2up
- ↑ Alabama House Journal 1829-1830, https://archive.org/details/alabama-house-journal-1829-1830/HJ_1829_1830/
- ↑ Alabama House Journal 1827-1828, https://archive.org/details/alabama-house-journal-1827-1828/HJ_1827_1828/
- ↑ Early Settlers of Talladega County. Retrieved 2025-04-03
- ↑ The Governor et al. v. et al., Alabama Department of Achives & History, March 7th 1850, pg. 54, https://digital.archives.alabama.gov/digital/collection/supreme_court/id/28119
- ↑ Kennedy et al. Marrast et al., Alabama Department of Archives & History, pg. 155, https://digital.archives.alabama.gov/digital/collection/supreme_court/id/28532/rec/1
- ↑ Daughters of the American Revolution, 1921, Lineage book, https://archive.org/stream/lineagebook5655daug/lineagebook5655daug_djvu.txt?
- ↑ Alabama Historical Reference Map 1880-1940, https://alabamamaps.ua.edu/historicalplaces/text/TalladegaText.pdf?
- ↑ Northern Alabama: Historical and Biographical by Smith and De Land (1888), https://genealogytrails.com/ala/talladega/bios_m.html?
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