Regrettably, JHM's recollections end abruptly and incompletely. But, what he did write is chock full of new insights into the J26 line. As a starter, he referred to his grandfather as "J H McAlister", not just James McAlister as in the CMA database. Hence, it seems likely that the "James Harvey" name goes all the way back to the J26 progenitor. Next, he identified two brothers of J26 - John and George. These men are not in the CMA database, yet RMM identified a deed of sale from a John McAlister to David Rankin in June 1798 along with an additional transaction in which John bought land similar in acreage to what he had sold. J26 also is recorded to have purchased land adjacent to John's. RMM also found a 1794 marriage bond betrothing John "McCollister" to Patsy Hamilton. The bondsman was George "McCollister". RMM questioned the reliability of this bond, but it now seems credible and that George was standing up for his brother John McAlister. RMM located Lincoln County court records indicating that John had some scrapes with the law in 1791 in which two lawsuits were filed against him apparently involving debts. By 1797, however, he was sufficiently in good standing to serve on a petit jury.

Do John and George McAlister fit into the 1790 census? I believe they do. Two Lincoln County McAlister households are listed sequentially and no doubt lived on immediately adjacent farms. For James "McCalister", the census reported one male 16 and over (J26 himself), three males under 16 and two females. Next door was "Widow McCalister" with two males age 16 and over, three males under 16 and five females. It is a distinct possibility that the two older boys living with Widow McAlister were John and George. If so, it is logical to conclude that she was the mother of those two as well as of J26.

What about the three younger boys in J26's household? RMM concluded that J26 and his wife Tabetha Delila Regan McAlister had five sons: William (J.H. Sr.'s father as J26-1), George (J26-2), Joseph (26-3), Elisha (J26-4) and David (J26-5). Due to the spread in birth dates over nearly 30 years, it is possible that Tabetha was J26's second wife(16). Furthermore, JHM states that J26 had the additional sons John, Alexander, and James, the latter taken to Ohio by an uncle, probably to relieve the stress on J26's expanding family obligations. JHM does not mention the youngest sons of J26, Elisha and David, at all. This suggests that these two boys, born when J26 was about age 50, were not his children and came with Tabetha to the second marriage. It is then conceivable that the "uncle," James Sullivan, who took son James to Ohio, was J26's wife's brother. If so, J26's first wife's maiden name is identified. Alternately, the "uncle" could have been married to a sister of J26 as there are unidentified females in the early censuses.

Census records consistently indicate that none of the boys now in the CMA database for J26 were born prior to 1795. Thus, the three boys in his household in 1790 could be the three new names revealed by JHM. This leaves the three additional McAlister boys living with "Widow McCalister" as unidentified as well as the six unknown females in both households.

The five new McAlister males, J26's brothers John and George and sons John, Alexander and James - also show up in subsequent census records. In 1800, J26 has another male in the household in his age bracket, and it is likely this is one of his two brothers. There is also an otherwise unidentified son born between 1785 and 1790 that can be associated with one of the previously unknown sons, however the other two are not there. Presumably, James had already gone off to Ohio with the uncle.

The George McAlister of the 1820 Lincoln County census was considered by RMM to be J26's known son George, but records indicate he was born in about 1802(17). The George in the 1820 census was born between 1776 and 1795. I believe this is J26's brother, not his son. There was another male in the household born between 1795 and 1804, thus of age 16 to 25, but there were no females and no younger children. The additional male could have been a nephew or even a hired hand helping out on the farm. It seems likely that this George never married, and, as it turns out, he does not appear in future censuses either explicitly or as an older male living with a younger head of household.

The 1820 census also includes an "A. McAllister" whose age bracket makes him the likely candidate for J26's son Alexander. The female in this childless household was in the same age bracket, 26-44, and while he does not appear in subsequent Lincoln County censuses, there is an otherwise mysterious "Marry McCalister" living alone in the 1840 census whose age then is consistent with that of A. McAllister's 1820 wife.

In the 1830 and 1840 censuses, the name John McAlister shows up before disappearing from subsequent tallies. In fact, there are two Johns in 1840! RMM speculated that one might have been J26's brother, but the other was a mystery. His intuition is now confirmed and the mysterious John resolved. The 1830 "John McCallister" precisely maps into the younger of the 1840 "John McCalister"s in terms of the ages of all members of the family alive in 1830. This John was born between 1781 and 1790, an interval entirely consistent with his being J26's son. The other John, who only appears in the 1840 census, was born between 1771 and 1780. He is thus likely to be J26's brother. Interestingly, he seems to have lived one farm down from J26's son William.

Both Johns disappear from Lincoln and Gaston County censuses after 1840. They each had two sons born between 1811 and 1825. It seems likely that one of these men is William Smith McAlister, the "cousin" JHM referred to as having married his sister Susan. The descendents from William Smith's two marriages have been previously described elsewhere(18). The 1850 Gaston County census does not have any males unassociated with the J26 line, and so it seems that the John McAlisters either left the county or died and their sons dispersed. There are no other obvious candidates throughout North Carolina for either John in the 1850 census nor does inspection of the Clan McAlister ancestral lines turn up any clear possibilities. My bet is that William Smith McAlister is the son of the younger John, i.e. J26's son, not his brother, as brother John would have been 40-50 years old when William Smith was born in 1820 and son John a decade younger. RMM reports a marriage bond in which James McAlister, the progenitor of the J45 line, is the bondsman for the 1843 marriage between Susan and William Smith McAlister. This James could not be J26's son James, who was living in Ohio then, nor could it have been Susan's brother James, i.e. JHM. I believe it is possible that J45 is William Smith McAlister's brother. If all this supposition could be proven, then J45 would merge with J26. DNA testing of a male descendent of William Smith McAlister would be key here as RMM has already cited such evidence linking J45 with J26.

What about the son James who went off to Ohio with the uncle, James Sullivan? JHM says he corresponded with this brother who raised a family there. I have not located a James Sullivan in Champaign County, Ohio (in which Urbana is located), but the name does appear in the 1790 through 1830 censuses for Lincoln County(19). There is a James McAlister who shows up in Champaign County census between 1840 and 1870 which date his birth between 1801 and 1806. If this is our otherwise missing James, then he cannot be one of the three males under age 16 in the 1790 J26 household. Perhaps there was another son who died. The 1850 and 1870 censuses indicate he was born in North Carolina. His wife, Delila (of the same name as J26's wife!) is widowed by 1880 and in 1900 lives with her son Isaac N. McAlister in Wilcox County, Georgia, where he and his wife run the post office. She apparently died before 1910, but Isaac and his wife Portia are in the 1930 census. The 1870 census includes a son "Horrace" born about 1852 who was a "medical student" in 1870. I have not been able to locate him in any subsequent census. While the data are inconclusive, it seems reasonable that James McAlister of Ohio is the brother referred to by JHM. RMM stated "I have often wondered why James McAlister J26 did not name of his sons James" and associated that name discontinuity with an implied suggestion that the progenitor of the James McAlister J45 line might be this missing son. We now know that J26's son James left North Carolina at an early age, but here offer another link between the J26 and J45 lines.

JHM's father William is now designated as J26-1 in this ancestral line, but it seems likely that he should actually be regarded as J26-3 with brothers John and Alexander coming before him as well as, apparently, a third non-surviving male. What became of them and their descendents? Well, that remains a mystery for now.

The CMA database currently shows William and his wife Mary Hoffman as having had seven children: Jacob, Harvey, Sallie, Susan, Joseph, A. Martin, and James. JHM clarifies this by stating that their first two children, both girls, died in infancy and were then followed chronologically by Susan, Joseph, Maben, Sally, Jacob, JHM and George Robert. Their last son died very early soon to be followed by Mary as JHM indicates they had both passed away while he was two years old. The "Harvey" and "James" in the CMA database are one and the same person, our JHM. "A. Martin" is actually "Maben" McAlister, another error propagated from LH.

JHM states that his brothers Maben and Joseph both died in the Civil War, and LH states that A. Martin (sic) "died single of wounds at Point Lookout, Maryland, in July 1864." Searching the Civil War databases of Ancestry.com, one finds an A.M. McAlister, a private in Company H of the 49th North Carolina Infantry Regiment(20) who enlisted on 14 Mar 1863 at age 31, was "registered at Drewry's Bluff" on 14 May 1864 and captured "near Richmond" on 31 May 1864. A handwritten note in a casualty list states that he died of "Vulnus Sclopet" at Point Lookout on 10 July 1864(21). Vulnus Sclopeticum is the latin term adopted by military doctors of the time for a gunshot wound(22).

Maben was captured on the opening day of the Battle of Cold Harbor. He died from gunshot wounds nearly six weeks later. It is not known if he was wounded at his capture and then lingered for six weeks or was shot at a later time. The Union POW camp at Point Lookout(23) was notorious for its brutality, with guards shooting prisoners for no apparent provocation. Although the official number of fatalities at Point Lookout is fewer than 4,000, it is estimated that as many as 14,000 Confederate soldiers and sympathizers died there. It thus seems a possibility that Maben McAlister arrived at the camp with no wounds but was subsequently shot while a prisoner, dying at age 32.

Frank McAlister has found records indicating that Joseph was captured in April 1865, similarly imprisoned at Point Lookout but then released after taking the oath of allegiance(24). However, JHM states that Joseph died in the war although no record can be found of the specifics surrounding his death. His second wife Salena Rhyne McAlister was awarded a widow's pension following a 1902 application. Joseph never appears in census records after 1860, so there is no reason to doubt JHM's statement regarding this brother's death.

A third son, Jacob, died of typhoid fever, and, according to JHM, is buried in Gaston County, North Carolina. LH states that Jacob died single at "Joseph Rhodes" in 1854. I believe this Joseph Rhodes was the husband of Jacob's first cousin Ann Spencer (daughter of John and Ann Hoffman Spencer). In the 1860 census, the Rhodes were living in Gaston County on the farm adjacent to that of David McAlister with whom Davids' mother, Tabitha Delila Regan, was living at age 80. Perhaps Jacob was living with the Rhodes at the time and helping out on their farm.

JHM's fourth brother, George Robert, died as an infant when JHM was only two years old. Thus, my great-grandfather was the only one of five sons of William McAlister who lived a full life. And that he did indeed achieve since he died in 1927 at age 92.

JHM's two sisters married and had children. Susan's marriage to her cousin William Smith McAlister has already been mentioned(25). In 1855, he remarried following Susan's death sometime before that year and had eleven children by his second wife Annie Stroup. JHM does not acknowledge Susan's death. A tombstone commemorating William Smith and his two wives was "erected by the grandchildren in 1975" in the cemetery of St. Luke's Lutheran Church in Pumpkin Center, near Lincolnton, NC. The marker gives the birth and death dates of William Smith and Annie, but only includes Susan's name. No doubt the commemoration was made by Annie's descendents as the result of the deterioration of the original stones.

LH states that sister Sallie married Alexander Rhyne which is confirmed by JHM. The CMA database presently does not record this marriage even though LH gives some details. Considerable information can be gleaned from census records.

LH indicates that Sallie and A.A. Rhyne had a number of children, one of whom he identified as a daughter named "Loveann." The 1860, 1870 and 1880 censuses show Alex A. Rhyne married to Sarah (Sallie is an appropriate nickname) with daughters Margaret L.(26) (born about 1855) and Nancy J. (born about 1860). Margaret was apparently married by 1880, but Nancy was still at home where the Rhynes had one servant and nine boarders working the farm. The ages given for Sarah/Sallie indicate she was born between 1830 and 1835. With the loss of the 1890 census, the next record for 1900 shows that Alex was born in June 1834 and was then in his fourteenth year of marriage to a woman named Elizabeth. Thus Sarah/Sallie McAlister must have passed away before 1886. In 1910, JHM wrote: "Sister Sally married Mr. Alexander Rhim (sic) who was badly wounded at Gettysburg but got home. I have lost sight of them since that time." He was thus unaware that his sister Sally, his last remaining sibling, had died some 25 years earlier.

In the early 1850's, James Harvey McAlister (JHM) decided that farming in "the old north state" was not for him, and he struck out to start a new life, apparently without much direction. JHM found himself in Spartanburg, South Carolina and had the good luck of meeting a "Mr. Burgess" a contractor for the first buildings at Wofford College. I contacted Wofford archivist Dr. R. Phillip Stone asking for any information he might have relevant to JHM. He kindly replied that the early construction of the College was done by the firm of Clayton and Burgess of Asheville, North Carolina, and suggested that while the College had no record of my ancestor, he would have been a subcontractor not directly paid by the College. The lead partner of the building firm, Ephraim Clayton, turns out to be very well known although his associate, who obviously was present at the Wofford construction according to my great-grandfather, is for now only known as Mr. Burgess. Construction at Wofford College began with the laying of the cornerstone of the Main Building in 1851.

During his employment with Mr. Burgess, JHM earned $40 per year which is about $1000 in today's money - a pretty paltry sum. But, Burgess apparently subsidized the young man heavily, and JHM memorialized this kindness by naming one of his sons(27) after the "splendid fellow whose kindness I can never forget." The name continued into the next generation with JHM Jr. applying it to one of his own sons(28).

From the timescale we can develop from the historical record, it seems likely that JHM joined the Wofford construction effort sometime around 1852 for he cited his next construction project as a courthouse in Salisbury, NC, for which construction began in 1855, after JHM had worked for Mr. Burgess for two and a half years.

The Salisbury courthouse, shown below, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and so considerable detail is available regarding its architectural style and history(29). It served justice in Rowan County from its dedication in 1857 until 1914 and currently is home to the Rowan Museum. In email exchanges with Ms. Kaye Hirst of the Rowan Museum and subsequently with Ms. Gretchen Witt of the Rowan County Public Library, I learned that the contractors for the old courthouse were Messrs. Conrad and Williams, but there is no mention of JHM in existing records. No doubt, as in the case of his employment at Wofford College, he was paid as a subcontractor. JHM apparently did not have the kind of relationship with Conrad or Williams that he had enjoyed with Mr. Burgess at Wofford.

After completing the courthouse job in the mid-1850s, JHM hit the road again with the thought of ending up with relatives in Missouri. His description of a journey that would end with him settling in Nashville sounds like he and his traveling companions had a fine time along the way. They "dallied at Warm Springs," a town in western North Carolina now known as Hot Springs where one wonders if they enjoyed the hospitality of the beautiful 350-room Warm Springs Hotel which attracted innumerable visitors from 1837 until it burned in 1882(30). After passing through Dandridge and then Knoxville, Tennessee, JHM found himself in Nashville working for Samuel Watkins, "a hard old man as true as steel." Watkins was a major figure in early Nashville history and became the benefactor of what is now known as the Watkins College of Art and Design.

JHM would work with Watkins' backing on the construction of the "Watkins block" on Second Avenue in Nashville, a collection of buildings housing various business and warehousing concerns. In the meantime, JHM had a close call with being drafted into the Confederate Army. Sometime around 1859, he married Eleanor Celeste Hobbs who was born in April, 1844(31), in Tennessee but then lived with her parents James R. and Jane W. Estill Hobbs in Morgan County, Alabama, where her father was a physician. Undocumented Rootsweb records trace Jane's ancestry back seven generations to her fifth great-grandfather Balthazar D'Estelle who lived in Provence, France. The Estills are a fascinating family, and I hope to write a separate regarding them.

Eleanor was only about 16 when she married JHM, and their first child, Mary Florence, was born in February 1861, just two months before the fall of Fort Sumter. JHM describes taking wife and baby to Alabama to stay with the Hobbses prior to commencing his military service. Upon returning to Nashville, he found that Fort Donaldson had fallen and the Tennessee governor had fled to Georgia. The tone of his memoir implies his disappointment with a government that would give up Nashville so easily. Consideration of the historical record(32) places JHM's return to Nashville in the spring or early summer of 1862 where he found himself "with the Federals" for the duration of the war and commenced raising his large family. He mentions 14 children - seven of each sex, but census and other records identify seven girls and five boys surviving to adulthood. One boy died in his first year while another survived to age 10(33).

An article from the 29 October 1911 Nashville Tennessean describes a family reunion in which 50 members of the family gathered at JHM's home on Lawrence Avenue in the Waverly Place section of Nashville. All the grandchildren were there, and four were christened. One of those was my father, who was just eight weeks old at the time. My sister recalls my father telling the story of visiting his grandfather in Nashville at the age of about 10, and when he walked into the room "the old man" said "who the Hell are you." So, old JHM probably had a rough edge about him, at least at times.

The final entry into JHM's reminiscences in the fall of 1919 relates the death of Eleanor. He would outlive her by nearly 15 years before joining her in Mount Olivet Cemetery. He stated that his wife passed away on 12 December 1912, however, her will(34) was submitted for probate via an affidavit signed by sons Walter, Burgess and Edwin on 28 October 1912 that puts her death date as 12 October of that year. Intriguingly, it was on that very date that JHM briefly picked up his memoir to add a few sentences closing with his intention to perhaps add more later. One wonders about the circumstances of his writing those words. Perhaps Eleanor was then gravely ill and he was thinking about his passed life while awaiting the outcome. Her death that day then precluded him from adding more.

JHM's most prominent structure was the Southern Turf Building, one of the few old buildings of that era that still stands in Nashville. It served as the home of the Nashville Tennessean newspaper at the time of JHM's death. Prior to that role, the Southern Turf had been the colorful centerpiece of the "Men's District" of Nashville. My cousin and Tennessee State Historian Walter Durham has beautifully described this landmark, and so I quote, with his permission, the following paragraphs from an address he gave to the board of directors of Humanities Tennessee on December 1, 2006, in the offices of the law firm Trauger & Tuke, the current owners of the Southern Turf Building(35), located at 222 Fourth Avenue North.

JHM constructed the four-story Southern Turf Building, then known as the Southern Turf Saloon, in 1895. It was an interesting undertaking. As the general contractor, he built it for the king of Nashville bookies, the eminently successful gambler Marcus Cartwright.

Southern Turf was built with a flair this is still a part of the Nashville scene. Conceived by its owner to be the centerpiece for the Men's District on Fourth Avenue North between Church and Union Streets, the red brick structure was raised on a grand foundation of limestone blocks and hard brick. Its architectural distinction was achieved by the inclusion of a corbelled turret at the upper left corner of the front façade and by three two-story bay windows on the Bank Alley side.

Placed over a full basement, the floor of which was level with a back alley, the first floor was at street level on Fourth Avenue. There a handsomely decorated restaurant and saloon, finished in mahogany and brass, served the eating and drinking needs of patrons. An enticing variety of gambling opportunities were offered on the second floor. For those who wanted to forget their losses or celebrate their winnings, the third floor was a bordello staffed by professional women who entertained clients privately in one of the many rooms set up for that purpose.

The Men's District was strictly for men. The main entrance to the Maxwell House Hotel, one of the most prominent hostelries in the Southeast, opened onto Fourth Avenue across the street from the Southern Turf, but women guests could enter the hotel only by a side door on Church Street. Respectable women were not wanted in the District, and they didn't want to be seen there. The environment of the Southern Turf and its neighbors was a crude mixture of male gambling, drinking, and sexual indulgence.

It seems unlikely that Grandfather McAlister ever spent much time in the venerable Southern Turf. That is, if we are to judge by a memoir written March 13, 1910, in which he observed, "I am about 74 years old … still too young to drink whisky, smoke or chew tobacco". He didn't mention gambling or women. But we all understand that a person is innocent until proved guilty.

Life in the Southern Turf Building changed totally with the enactment of prohibition laws. There were several successor tenants, but the one of longest tenure was the printing office of the daily Nashville Tennessean whose presses delivered each edition to a dock on the alley at the rear of the building, a phenomenon that gave rise to today's name, Printer's Alley.

When JHM died on 17 September 1927 at age 92, Nashville newspapers printed front-page death notices that described him as "one of the pioneer brick building contractors of Nashville and one of the city's best known older citizens" who came to Nashville in 1855 and "was for many years one of the outstanding building contractors in Nashville" who "played a part in the erection of the best known of the old buildings in the city."

JHM and Eleanor Celeste Hobbs McAlister lived for many years in the "old home place" (shown below) at 1106 Lawrence Avenue in the old Nashville neighborhood known as Waverly Place. I noticed in looking at census records that JHM's children tended to live near the patriarch. When I checked the 1920 census addresses on Mapquest, I found that five of the then middle-aged children lived along a strip of South Douglas Avenue, a block north of the old man's house. A seventh lived on 10th Avenue South, even closer to JHM. And, two of the sons (Burgess and Laurie) were still living with their father. Even a married granddaughter lived on Douglas, which might have been called "McAlister Avenue" instead. His oldest daughter had passed away three years earlier, and daughters Susan and Louella had both married prominent businessmen who probably established their homes in somewhat more elegant neighborhoods. Only my grandfather, JHM Jr., had left Nashville in 1903 to work for the N&W Railway in Chattanooga. What a close-knit family this was! One can only wonder at the lively traffic that must have gone in and out of that house on Lawrence Avenue with eight children and eleven grandchildren within a couple minutes' walk.

In her will, dated 17 May 1909, Eleanor bequeathed land lots of 160-ft front footage to any of her children who had not previously received such a gift. She gave special attention to two of her unmarried children, Burgess and Mary Florence, by bequeathing them title to the old home place after the death of JHM for "their kindness to us in our declining years."

In the first of two codicils, Eleanor expressed her desire to leave the "Strober" Piano(36) in the home" to her daughter Eleanor M. Warren. In her final codicil, dated 29 October 1910, she stated "My last request is that my dear daughter Eleanor and her little daughter Dorithy (sic) Florence my beloved grand daughter always have a home at my old home with her brother Burgess and sister Florence and her dear father and brother Laurie and all the other brothers and sisters take care of them. Your old Mother, Eleanor C. McAlister."

My great grand parents, who are shown below in front of the Lawrence Avenue home, had twelve children who survived into adulthood, losing two young sons. What follows are some highlights of each child. A listing of the descendents of JHM through their second generation is given at the end of this article.

Mary Florence McAlister (1861-1917) - This first child never married and lived with her parents her entire life. Her Nashville Tennessean obituary stated "Miss McAlister had been ill only a short time and her sudden death will come as a shock to her many friends, as she was greatly beloved by all who knew her. She led a beautiful home life and was the center of a large and devoted family circle."

Susan Frances McAlister (1862-1931) - Susan married the Canadian immigrant Thomas Chaplin Joy (1861-1916) in 1887, founder of Joy's Flowers which became one of the most successful florist businesses in the Southeast. Susan and Thomas had three sons and five daughters.

Maben Burgess McAlister (1864-1928) - Burgess, as he was called, was named for his uncle who died at Point Lookout and JHM's generous employer in the construction work at Wofford College. Listed in the 1924 Nashville City Directory as a bricklayer, Burgess lived at home and likely worked for his father in the construction business. The 1924 census indicated his marital status as divorced.

William Alexander Alberto McAlister (1866-1867) - The identity of this son was given me by my cousin Jane Crockett Franks who said he died at one year of age. I subsequently found a record of an "infant son" of J.H. McAlister in the directory of the Nashville City Cemetery maintained by the Nashville Public Library indicating that William was buried on "Hundley's Lot" on 8 April 1867. The "disease" associated with the death was "teething."

Walter Clarence McAlister (1867-1948) - A Nashville cotton broker who later went into the real estate business, Walter married Ella Gilmore in 1893. They had two daughters and two sons one of whom, Clarence Gilmore McAlister (1902-1925) died in a tragic drowning accident at age 23 in 1925. I recall meeting their youngest child, Walter Edward McAlister (1907-1973), when I was a kid. He managed the Joy's Flowers store in Chattanooga and was a patient of my father, his first cousin. Walter and Ella's second child, Celeste (1898-1925) is the mother of my cousin Walter Durham, whose contributions have so substantially added to this article.

Louella Rosemond McAlister (1869-1936) - Louella married Samuel G. Bradley (1869-1939) in 1894 and gave birth to two sons and three daughters. Her obituary indicates that she died suddenly of a heart attack and was survived by her husband and children and indicates that Mr. Bradley was for 42 years president of the S.G. Bradley Wholesale Candy Company in Nashville. My father was listed as a pallbearer at her funeral, but I never recall him mentioning "Aunt Louella."

Edwin Joseph McAlister (1871-1935) - Although I have no evidence to back it up, I'd be willing to bet that his middle name was James. (Edwin's younger brother James H. McAlister, Jr. would name one of his sons James Edwin.) Edwin married Louise George about 1907 and they had one daughter whose own descendents I have not been able to identify. His obituary indicates that he was a bricklayer and past president of Brick Masons' Union No. 4 in Nashville, a service role that might have produced interesting conversations between him and his contractor father!

James Harvey McAlister, Jr. (1873-1945) - My grandfather died before I was born, but my father always spoke with great fondness of his dad who worked for many years as the commercial agent for Norfolk & Western Railway in Chattanooga. JHM Jr. was the only one of JHM's children who left Nashville. I used to hear tales about trout fishing "up on Daddys Creek" as my father always said. (The creek is now part of the Obed Wild and Scenic River National Recreation Area.) I have a photo of my father in his late teens posing while holding a trout as well as a photo of his father holding the same trout! I will always wonder who actually caught that fish. JHM Jr. married Emma Loula Smith (1874-1951), and they had five sons, the youngest of whom was my father. There were one or possibly two daughters who died in infancy in the 11-year time span between my father's birth and that of his youngest older brother. My grandmother was 36 when my father was born, and I wonder if, in today's vernacular, he was an "oops." There was a claim in the family that "Nannie" was descended from the Lees of Virginia, a claim that I am still trying to prove. Except for my Uncle Buie (Buist Burgess McAlister, 1896-1990), all of JHM Jr's sons died young.

William Smith McAlister (1875-1975) - He was the second of the two sons lost in their infancy whose identities I learned from Jane Crockett McAlister. It is fascinating that he was named after the husband of JHM's sister's husband, whose blood relationship is a matter of informed speculation. I believe the fact that JHM would name a son after the first William Smith McAlister supports my conclusion that JHM and William Smith McAlister were first cousins.

Lillian Blanche McAlister (1876-1966) - Although I was 17 when she died, I never met this great aunt who in 1902 married David Tidwell Crockett (1877-1933), a successful Nashville real estate agent. They had one child, David T. Jr., and I recently made contact with his daughter, Jane Crockett Franks, who served as General Sessions and Juvenile Court Judge for 20 years in Williamson County, Tennessee. I have been able to trace Lillian's husband back through two earlier generations of Crocketts but with no luck so far in establishing any relationship to the Davy Crockett. There is a pension record for a disability filing by Lillian for him, first as an invalid and then for her as a widow in connection with service in the Spanish American War. Further investigation found that he was a member of Company L of the 1st Tennessee Infantry which saw combat in the Philippines after the Filipino insurrection .

Ida Elena McAlister (1879-1963) - My only knowledge of Ida was from her presence in the 1880 census until Walter Durham sent me newspaper clippings that identified her as being the wife of George E. Morgan, who was born in 1877 in Tennessee. They had one son, George B. Morgan, who was identified in JHM's obituary as a member of the advertising department of the Nashville Tennessean. By the 1930 census, he had been promoted to circulation manager.

Josephine Ellis McAlister (1880-1950) - Josephine was completely unknown to me until I received a set of newspaper clippings from Walter Durham that contained her wedding announcement. She was born months after the 1880 census was completed and married Andrew Pretty Martin (1879-1937) just before the 1900 census when she was living with her husband's parents. So, thanks to the fire that destroyed the 1890 census, she never shows up in any census records in the household of JHM. Andrew Martin had been a business partner with David Crockett, and his obituary noted that "Mr. Martin was a past president of the Nashville Real Estate Board. As a member of the firm of A.P. Martin and Son, he was instrumental in negotiating many large uptown leases to chain stores and other business firms." Josephine and Andrew had one son, Andrew P. Jr., but I am unaware of further descendents.

Albert Laurence McAlister (1883-1940) - "Laurie," as he was referred to in his mother's will, apparently never married and lived at home. The 1930 census indicates he was living with his younger sister's family. His is occupation was listed as "none," an activity consistent with my father's recollections of him.

Eleanor Madden McAlister (1886-1939) - The 1910 census shows her as Eleanor Warren and living with her daughter Florence in her parents' home. From her mother's obituary, I learned that Eleanor's husband's first name was Louis. His departure, whose nature is unknown to me, left her with a daughter, Dorothy Florence. I have already noted how my great grandmother worried about her youngest daughter, but she need not have worried as the 1920 census shows Eleanor married to Bailey Martin with Dorothy living with them. Martin's WWI draft registration identifies his middle name as Washington, and he was living with his mother when he registered in the fall of 1918. He worked as a telegraph operator for Western Union. Census records show that Bailey's older brother is Andrew Martin, husband of Eleanor's sister Josephine. The younger Martin couple had two children, Bailey Jr. and Blanche, and I have been able to establish that this son passed away in February 1987.

The McAlister family gathered for this wonderful family photograph around 1895. The image was given to me by Walter Durham.

My cousin Walter Durham told me that I am the first of his McAlister family to ever contact him. In addition to giving me the pleasure of meeting my half second cousin, that "cold call" provided information I never would have found during my many hours logged into Ancestry.com or scouring Tennessee and North Carolina public records. Family heritage information in Walter's hands greatly complement what I had learned and has shed significant new light on the J26 family line. It has also substantially added to my knowledge of the J26 Tennessee branch, of which I am a member, created by my great-grandfather when he decided to leave the "old North State" and head west. Of course, JHM didn't make it to Missouri as he may have intended, but he did make a mark for himself in Tennessee's capitol and raised a large and interesting family whose own descendents will probably number well over a hundred when and if I can expand my current count.

• James Harvey McAlister 1836 - 1927
  +Eleanor Celeste Hobbs 1844 - 1912
• Mary Florence McAlister 1861 - 1917
• Susan Francis McAlister 1862 - 1931
  +Thomas Chaplin Joy 1861 - 1916
• Nellie Joy 1888 - 1939
• Thomas Harvey Joy 1890 - 1937
  +Mary Monica McGinnis 1892 - 1969
• Harold McAlister Joy 1892 - 1935
  +Ethel Mary McAlister 1892 - 1979
• Lillian M. Joy 1894 - 1955
• Edwin Chaplin Joy 1896 - 1980
• Marion Joy 1899 -
  +Richard F. Castner 1897 - 1967
• Susan Frances Joy 1903 - 1960
Ruth Estill Joy 1904 -
+Benjamin P. Moore - 1981
• Maben Burgess McAlister 1864 - 1928
• William Alexander Alberto McAlister c.1866 - 1867
• Walter Clarence McAlister 1867 - 1948
  +Ella Gilmore 1873 - 1945
• Lucile Claire McAlister 1896 - 1980
  +Mervyn James Kingins 1892 - 1976
• Celeste McAlister 1898 - 1988
  +George Franklin Durham 1895 - 1972
• Clarence Gilmore McAlister 1902 - 1925
• Walter Edward McAlister 1907 - 1973
  +Margaret Catherine Farmer 1904 - 1975
• Louella Rosemond McAlister 1869 - 1936
  +Samuel Green Bradley 1869 - 1939
• Samuel McAlister Bradley 1895 - 1978
  +Frankie B. Compton 1901 - 1994
• Eleanor F. Bradley 1897 -
• Charles Phillip Bradley 1899 - 1973
  +Dorothy Willis 1900 - 1993
• Lenna Bradley 1903 -
• Margaret R. Bradley 1905 -
  +Newton deHart Jones 1902 - 1998
• Edwin Joseph McAlister 1871 - 1935
  +Louise George 1875 -
• Mildred Josephine McAlister 1912 -
  +Edward L. Rutherford
• James Harvey McAlister Jr. 1873 - 1945
  +Emma Loula Smith 1874 - 1951
• James Edwin McAlister 1895 - 1946
  +Mary Elizabeth Attaway 1899 - 1957
• Buist Burgess McAlister 1896 - 1990
  +Maitha June Peace 1902 - 1979
  
• William Napier McAlister 1898 - 1940
  +Dorothy Shumaker
• Chester Lee McAlister 1900 - 1951
  +Marjorie Crownover 1900 - 1943
• Mary Elizabeth McAlister 1906 - 1906
• Infant Girl McAlister 1907 - 1907
• Harold Joy McAlister 1911 - 1971
  +Alice Lillian Ashburn 1910 - 1941
  *2nd Wife of Harold Joy McAlister:
  +Edna Robbins 1910 - 1987
• William Smith McAlister c.1875 - 1885
• Lillian Blanche McAlister 1876 - 1966
  +David Tidwell Crockett 1877 - 1933
• David T. Crockett 1911 -
• Ida Elena McAlister 1879 - 1963
  +George E. Morgan 1877 -
• George B. Morgan 1900 - 1967
  +Mary Helen Woodward 1903 - 1961
• Josephine Ellis McAlister 1880 - 1950
  +Andrew Pretty Martin 1879 - 1937
• Andrew Pretty Martin Jr. 1901 - 1947
  +Edith 1904 -
• Albert Laurence McAlister 1883 - 1940
• Eleanor Madden McAlister 1886 - 1939
  +Louis Warren - 1910
• Dorothy Florence Warren 1909 -
*2nd Husband of Eleanor M McAlister:
+Bailey Washington Martin 1881 -
• Bailey Washington Martin Jr. 1921 - 1987
• Eleanor Blanche Martin 1924 -