ALEXANDER HUNTER CHAMBERLAIN
ALEXANDER HUNTER CHAMBERLAIN & TEMPERANCE KILLINGSWORTH (ALDRIDGE) CHAMBERLAIN
Alexander Hunter Chamberlain, b July 4, 1818 in Abbeville
District, South Carolina, d February 13, 1883 in Blue Ridge, Falls County, Texas
in the of his son-in-law, William Henry Mitchell, and buried in Blue Ridge
Cemetery--was a son of Thomas and Margaret (Oliver) Chamberlain, and a grandson
of John and Rebecca (Cobb) Chamberlain and James and Mary (Hunter) Oliver. He
was named for his great-grandfather, Alexander Hunter who married Jane (Morrow),
who lived and died in South Carolina. The Chamberlain, Oliver, Hunter, and
Morrow families were all slave owners, and had large plantations in South
Carolina. After Thomas Chamberlain's death in South Carolina, his widow,
Margaret (Oliver) Chamberlain moved in 1843 with her children in Autauga County,
Alabama--remaining there for a year, and then settling in late 1844 in "Old
Yalobusha" County, Mississippi (present day Grenada County), where Margaret died
in 1866 on the Mississippi Plantation of her son, William Cobb Chamberlain. The
twelve children of Thomas and Margaret (Oliver) Chamberlain were:
An infant b & d 1812, Alfred b 1814, William Cobb b October 13, 1816, Alexander
Hunter b July 4, 1818, Margaret Caroline, b 1820, who married Thomas P. Bowen;
Rebecca, b 1821; Thomas Andrew b April 8, 1823; James Oliver, b 1824 who came to
Falls County, Texas---was a "Trader" ---settled in Robertson County, Texas,
where he died; Lorenzo Dow, b 1825; George Washington, b 1830 who was unmarried
and traveling with his brother, Alexander Hunter Chamberlain, to come to Texas
and while crossing the Mississippi River on a Ferry, was drowned; Ariadna Jane b
April 17, 1832 who married William G. B. Wilson; and Ann Elizabeth, b 1835, who
married C. H. Sipy---the "Slave Manager" for his brother-in-law, William Cobb
Chamberlain.
On July 25, 1844 in Autauga County, Alabama, Alexander hunter Chamberlain
married Temperance Killingsworth Aldridge, b May 5, 1827 in Autauga County, d
January 8, 1862 in Alto Springs, Falls County, Texas of "consumption complicated
by childbirth." She was buried behind the family log mear Little Brazos
River in Alto Springs---"due to a flood and bad freeze, the funeral could not be
held in Blue Ridge Cemetery." Temperance was a daughter of William
Killingsworth Aldridge and his first wife, Martha Lucinda (Ghiberti) Aldridge,
and a granddaughter of Reubin and Anne (Killingsworth) Aldridge and Angelo and
Lucinda (Oliver) Ghiberti. After the death of her mother, Temperance's father
married second to Martha Rose motley, and Temperance later named a daughter for
two of her young step-sisters.
In late 1844, Alexander Hunter and Temperance moved with her father's new
family, and his own mother and siblings, into Mississippi, where the Aldridge
Family settled on Choctaw County and the Chamberlains in "Old Yalobusha" County
(present day Grenada County). They were of the Baptist denomination, and
Alexander became a Deacon in the Mars Hill Baptist Church--settling down for
five years. In 1849, Alexander was bitten by the "gold fever bug," and,
resettling his wife and two sons in Choctaw County next door to her father, he
sailed March 21, 1849 for the California Gold Rush as a passenger on the Ship
Samoset---sailing from Vicksburg, Mississippi just nine days before the birth of
his third child and first daughter. He settled in a swelling on the Banks of
the Consumnes River in California, together with a brother, Lorenze Dow
Chamberlain, and a cousin, James T. Oliver, and four other gold miners. His
slave, Thomas Chamberlain, completed the occupants of the swelling.
Alexander Hunter Chamberlain did not return to Mississippi until Spring or
Summer of 1853, where his fourth child was born the next year; and then the
family moved to Texas and settled in Alto Springs, Falls County, where their
last three children were born. They brought five slaves with them to Texas,
crossed the Mississippi River by ferry--traveling with mule-drawn covered
wagons.
The seven children of Alexander hunter and Temperance Killingsworth
(Aldridge) Chamberlain were:
William Alonzo Chamberlain, b November 25, 1845, in Old Yalobusha County,
Mississippi, d March 15, 1864 while in jail in Mexico with his father and
brother, buried on the Texas side of the Rio Grande River. The father and two
sons had been imprisoned by the Mexican Government during the Civil War.
Alexander Hunter Chamberlain "bribed" a Mexican guard to help them take William
Alonzo's body across the river to bury him on Texas soil--promising to return to
the jail in Mexico if he would help them. They were released from jail at the
end of the Civil War, and then the father and surviving son, Angelo Ghiberta,
returned to Falls County. William Alonzo Chamberlain was not married--being 19
years old when he died.
Angelo Ghiberta Chamberlain, b October 1, 1847, d May 14, 1923 and buried in
Blue Ridge, Cemetery, Falls County, Texas--married December 20, 1871 in Falls
County to Sarah ("Sally") Harlan, and had eleven children.
Frances Tucker Chamberlain, b March 30, 1849 in Choctaw County, Mississippi
just nine days after her father sailed for the California Gold Rush, d November
24, 1934 in California--married first to Henry H. Sharp and had two children;
married second to Zill H. McCaleb and had no issue.
Margaret Lucinda Chamberlain, b June 23, 1854 in Old Yalobusha County,
Mississippi---the fourth child, but the first born after her father's return
from the California Gold Rush---married September 9, 1869 in Falls County, Texas
to William Henry Mitchell, b July 4, 1846 in Texas, d March 6, 1917 in Blue
Ridge---son of Memnon A. and Martha (Harlan) Mitchell who came to Texas soon
after their marriage in Indiana in the Fall of 1834 with her parents, Dr. Isaiah
and Nancy (Henry) Harlan. They were the parents of fourteen children.
Sam Houston Chamberlain, b February 19, 1856 at Alto Springs, Falls County,
Texas--the fifth child and first on born in Texas, d March 14, 1935 and buried
in Bremond Cemetery, Robertson County, Texas--married Anna Dora Bryant, and had
five children.
Mary Eliza ("Mollie") Chamberlain, b July 16, 1859 at Alto Springs, Falls
County, Texas, d February 20, 1942---married in 1877 in California to Miner
Charles Fuller, b in Canada, and had thirteen children.
Martha Elizabeth Chamberlain, b April 16, 1861 at Alto Springs, Falls
County, Texas, d December 6, 1861 and buried behind the family at Alto
Springs where her mother was buried about a month later.
The Civil War was raging when Temperance Killingsworth (Aldridge)
Chamberlain died, and by 1864, it appeared that the first two sons might have to
enter the Confederate States Army. Alexander remembered his trip into Mexico in
1861 - 1862 after his wife's death, with his brother, James Oliver Chamberlain,
to "gather Spanish ponies," and now in 1864 he returned t Mexico with a slave,
Bill Chamberlain, and his two eldest sons to remove them of any chance of being
inducted into the Confederate States Army. They were immediately incarcerated
by the Mexicans until the end of the Civil War, when Alexander Hunter returned
to Falls County with his second son--the eldest having died there. The document
filed when Alexander entered Mexico in 1864 described him as a man of "Tall
Stature, Regular Complexion, Grey Eyes, Extra Long Nose, Regular Mouth, Greyish
hair, Has Beard," His pictures verify the accuracy of the description.
Shortly after March 1871, Alexander Hunter Chamberlain decided to make a
second trip to California, taking his two daughters, Frances Tucker Chamberlain
and Mary Eliza ("Mollie") Chamberlain, and his youngest son, Sam Houston
Chamberlain with him. They settled near Uriah in Low Gap, California, where
Mollie married in 1877. Alexander kept a small notebook-journal during this
stay in California, recording information about fruit trees and grapevines he
was purchasing to bring back to Falls County, Texas; listing items and costs of
purchases such as tobacco; and listing the trees cut for lumber and delivery to
people building homes and businesses---ending with information about his return
by train to Hearne, Texas with "a steamer trunk with a false bottom in which he
had hidden two pouches of gold dust." This gold dust was to have been stolen
after arrival in Hearne and final lap of the journey back to Falls County.
Whether or not he had the gold dust is not proven; but it is known that he
planted the grapevines, as his record showed, and he planted some fruit trees on
the land of his children, Angelo Ghiberta and Margaret Lucinda. He grafted pear
trees to crab apple trees, and four of these are still bearing the different
flavored pears on the Chamberlain farm at Blue Ridge.
Alexander Hunter Chamberlain returned to Falls County about 1878 with his
two unmarried children and his daughter and new son-in-law, where he died. He
was a man who had been reared to be a "Gentlemen." with slaves to do all the
physical work. After the slaves were freed, one of the former adult men taught
him carpentry; and there are still some of the rawhide-bottomed chairs, his
tools, and other examples of his work--now in the Falls County Historical
Museum.
Transcribed by Kay Cunningham
Copyright Permission granted to Theresa Carhart and her volunteers for printing
these bio of these Falls County Families to this Web page
"Families of Falls County", Compiled and Edited by the Falls County
Historical Commission, page 68, column 2 , page 69, column 1 and 2, page 70,
column 1 and 2.
Member of Falls County Historical Commission
This book is out of Print, and very few copies are available.
