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John Hardie (1796 - 1848)

John Hardie is the progenitor of the American branch of the Hardie family as it developed in the southern part of the United States. Johns lifes is very well document, he wrote many letters to his family in Scotland, particularly his eldest brother Joseph. The family retained retained these letters, but answered few of them. They make an excellent journal of life in colonial America.

John was born at "Broomie Knowe" in Saline on 6 March 1796, the sixth child and fourth son of John Hardie & Isabella Cousin. He was christened on 15 March 1796, most likely in Saline. As he grew up, he was fascinated by the land of opportunity, America, which he had heard discussed by travelers in the Post House, and thru letters from his Uncle James.

In November, 1816, he left Kinross to find work in Edinburgh. John was not the type to spend money unnecessarily. He sent his trunk with a few necessities by freighter, then with "high hopes" he proceeded to walk to the city of Scotia, approximately 20 miles away as the crow flies.

At age 21, John Hardie left Scotland for the New World. He departed by ship from Leith, the port of Edinburgh, hoping to make his fortune and arrived in New York on July 18, 1817. After another voyage of eleven days from New York, he arrived on August 6, 1817, in Richmond, Virginia, where he worked out his one year contract (indicating he was bonded immigrant).

Whilst there, he recieved a letter from David Ireland, a friend from Scotland, who wrote to John about Huntsville, Alabama. Ireland had taken a ship from New York to Mobile and then a boat up the river to Huntsville, a journey more easily said than done in 1817. John's letter home talked of a growing town. This was sufficient to whet Johns appetite and in September 1818 he and a friend, James Black (potentially a relative of brother David's wife Christian), set out overland from Richmond with a horse-drawn wagon. They arrived in Huntsville 24 days later on October 19, 1818. John arrived with $500 dollars that he had evidently saved while working in Richmond, and he immediately wrote home for more. It's not clear whether he used the money to buy land or to lend to others for that purpose. Interest rates were very high, and lenders could charge almost 40% to land speculators who expected to earn much more. The federal government sold the land in minimum tracts of 160 acres (a quarter section) at an average price of about $7.50 per acre. If he bought land during the boom, he must have bought it in smaller lots during the secondary trading.

According to his letters, John began working on a six month's contract as a clerk in John Read's store. Read was also the manager of the land office. John later invested in a store with his friend James Black, and ultimately, in 1820, he moved to Ditto's Landing on the Tennessee where he started a store called White and Hardie, in partnership with John Read and James White.

By 1825, Read had left the business and Ditto's Landing had become Whitesburg, named for John's partner. Over the next few years John's store prospered, trading in merchant goods and cotton. around this time, he began investing in land, particularly along the Tennessee river and in and around Triana.

In early 1828 when John was 32, Joshua Willis introduced him to his 16 year old sister-in-law, Mary Mead Hall. Mary Mead Hall was born on 17 Oct 1812 in Suffolk, Virginia. She was the fifth of seven children born to Isaac Hall (1764-1825), a Methodist minister and Mary Mead (? -1824). In 1822, when she was 10, Mary's family moved from to Florence, Alabama, where the youngest child, James, was born. The children became orphans in 1825 after the death of Mary Mead in 1824 and Isaac Hall in 1825. At the time Mary was thirteen. She and her sister Sarah (15), were sent to live with their older sister Martha and her husband Joshua Willis in Triana, Alabama (10 miles down river from Whitesburg).

Despite the age difference, John and Mary were married on 27 November 1828 in Triana, Madison County, Alabama. They had nine children between 1829 and 1849, consisting of seven sons and two daughters:

Immediately after their marriage, Mary moved to Whitesburg where she set up housekeeping, and the next 5 years saw the arrival of their first 3 children. In 1833 John began liquidating his holdings, selling his last piece of land in Madison County April 1834. Soon after this transaction, John Hardie settled up with his partner, James White, and in 1835 the family moved to Talladega County, Alabama.

John's correspondence with his family in Scotland doesn't explain why he decided to leave Madison County. In appears his original intent was to return to Scotland to visit his parents, but this did not happen. On October 12, 1835, John purchased 320 acres in Talladega County (located west of present state highway 21). He had increased his holding to 700 acres shortly after. It was then he started construction on his plantation home - Thornhill - named after his childhood home in Fife. Whilst this work was underway, the family lived in a small house on the property. Over time the farm grew in time to 1700 acres.

In 1836 the family grew by three after the death of both Joshua Willis and Martha Ann Hall. 3 of Joshua and Marthas children were fostered by John and Mary, and raised as their own. They were

On his plantation his "money crop" must have been cotton, but he also raised vegetables, beef, pigs, poultry, to feed all of the fifty to sixty people who lived on the plantation.For John Hardie, a pious Scotch Presbyterian the concept of owning slaves was abhorrant. However, he had been unable to found another satisfactory source of labor, so he became the owner of fifty human beings.

During this period, John Hardie also set up a store in Mardisville, a town about a mile and a half south of Thornhill on the Sylacauga road. Six more children were born at Thornhill, and finally after thirteen years together at Thornhill, John died on 17 August 1848. He was buried in the family cemetary on Thornhill. Mary was thirty-five years old and pregnant with their ninth child Thomas, and her oldest child was only eighteen. Mary survived this tradgedy, taking on management of

The months after Johns death were very trying, John's sister Helen and her husband William Spence and their five children moved to Talladega County. Mary's sister Sarah, who had moved to Talladega County in 1845 after her first husband's death, married the Reverend Oliver Welch in October 1848. Then in January 1849 Sarah's daughter Mary was married in Talladega. Tommie was born less than two weeks later.

In the years between 1851 and 1858 Mary watched her children leave home and get married. The family settled up the Mardisville store in 1853. By the end of 1858, there was only Robert, Alva, Annie Eliza and Thomas left at home.

April 1861 saw the beginning of the Civil War, little is known of Mary's feelings towards this combat, but it cannot have been easy for her when six of her sons joined the Confederate Army. She was left at home with Thomas and Annie Eliza. Isabelle and her children were also at Thornhill for the duration of the war.

Toward the end of the war, Talladega was invaded by Union cavalry raiders. At the end of the war Mary found herself is a difficult situation. She explained her predicament to John Hardie's brother William in Scotland: "The farm is leased out to a farmer. I could not manage it myself now since the negroes are free. I have the dwelling house, yard, garden, & orchard. One of my old servants stays here when we go away and she takes care of everything. She was a slave but is so much attached to me & my children that she has no wish to leave us. I know that you all think slavery a dreadful thing, but there are thousands that were once well and happy that are now dying of want."

In 1868 Thomas left for college, and after Annie Elizas marriage in November 1869, Mary was alone at Thornhill. It appears that the family enjoyed a level of prosperity most survivors of the war could not match. Mary travelled to New Orleans and other places, visiting her children. It appears that Mary suffered from tuberculosis, and on 18 February 1872 at the age of 59 Mary died surrounded by all of her children. In her eulogy Mary is noted as a remarkable woman described by her minister as "modest, meek, unassuming, yet self-possessed, conscientious and firm."

After Mary's death Thornhill was apparently sold, a couple of years later, Johns youngest daughter Annie Elizabeth, who had married J. M. Lewis bought the house. She died there in 1880, aged 34, and later J. M. Lewis sold Thornhill. Ownership of Thornhill remained out of the Hardie family from that time until 1959, when it was bought by John Hardie's great-granddaughter Anna Meade Minnigerode and her husband H. Gordon Minnigerode.

The geneaology of the American Hardie line is extensively and comprehensively documented at the Thornhill Foundation site, including a transcript of the book - "Brothers in Arms" detailing John Hardie's sons' experience of the Civil War, family newsletters and a more detailed family history on John Hardie. There is also a password protected area of the site that contains a full family tree to which access is available upon subscription to the foundation.

John Hardie (1796 - 1848)