Keeping the legacy alive: Their research pays homage to Russellville’s founder, their ancestors

EAST FRANKLIN – Just off County Road 81 sits a small graveyard with around a dozen or so people who have been laid to rest over the past 200 or so years.

Most of the headstones are weathered and hard to read, but the one standing above the rest is that of Major William Russell – the founder of Franklin County and the namesake of the county seat.

While he may have died more than 200 years ago, Russell’s descendants are still hard at work keeping his legacy alive while also trying to uncover more information about the somewhat mysterious pioneer.

Clay Blankenship, a Huntsville-based meteorologist, has dedicated the past three-and-a-half decades to uncovering as much as possible about his great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather.

Blankenship said his father was into genealogy, which is why he began to take an interest in it when he was in college.

Admittedly, it was a slow, tedious process at the beginning. Eventually, he began to learn more about his ancestors and before he knew it, he had untangled a web more than two centuries old.

“Little by little things started to come together by appearing online,” Blankenship said. “He’s definitely my most interesting ancestor, by far.”

While no photos or sketches of him exist, and little is known about his early life, Russell played a pivotal role in the development of northwest Alabama.

Born in 1762 in what was then known as the Province of North Carolina, Russell was the son of either George or John Russell, who were among the first white settlers in Tennessee. Both brothers were part of the Watauga Association, which created a self-governing colony in 1772.

The first known record of William Russell came in 1782 when he purchased land adjacent from George Russell on Bean’s Creek.

Russell served as a captain in a company of mounted spies during the War of 1812. The famous frontiersman and former U.S. Representative David Crockett served as a member of the group.

Russell’s son, George, named after the former’s brother, served as part of Crockett’s regiment and later became the basis for the character “Georgie” in the 1950s TV miniseries “Davy Crockett.”

After participating in the Battle of Horseshoe Bend in 1814 against the Red Stick Creek Indians, alongside the likes of John Coffee and Sam Houston, Russell settled in what is now Franklin County. He is credited with being the first white settler in the area.

Russell founded what was then known as “Russell Valley” in 1815, which was approximately three miles southeast of where Russellville currently sits.

Russell died on Feb. 16, 1825, in Newburg and was buried in Denton Hollow Cemetery in East Franklin.

“I do take pride in knowing that my ancestors are what started it all,” Blankenship said. “He was a pioneer in the truest sense of the word. Just building a log cabin in the wilderness and to have it turn into a city, and the county seat, is something special.”

Blankenship has even gone as far to travel to the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas, in search of Russell’s gun – a .52 caliber Pennsylvania long rifle – which he was able to track down and hold.

Over the 30-plus years he has been looking into his family history, Blankenship has contacted “several dozen” fellow descendants of Russell. One of those is former Franklin County resident Tim Miller, who is retired and lives in Memphis, Tennessee, now.

Miller’s ties to Russell goes back seven generations on his mother’s side of his family, he said. Russell would be Miller’s first cousin, six times removed.

While he doesn’t have as much time as he previously did to visit Franklin County, Miller’s still very active in researching his family’s history.

Miller, who previously worked and lived in Red Bay, said he has visited Russell’s gravesite a handful of times over the years to see the grave and do research.

“It’s almost an addiction,” Miller said. “You find out who your great-grandfather or whoever is and then you find another person. With the records and things that are out there, you can just keep going and you find out more and it’s really addicting.”

Like Blankenship, Miller got interested in digging into his roots through older family members.

While in college, his older cousin handed him an envelope containing photos of older family members. Years later, Miller was watching a TV program focusing on tracking down people’s family trees and he remembered those photos and began his search.

Once he learned of Russell and his importance to his home county, the hunt for more information was on for Miller.

“I’ll be up at 4 a.m. never having batted an eye when I’m looking into this stuff,” Miller said. “I found out a lot about my direct family, but I found out so much about other families that tied into mine. It’s amazing how that tree ultimately kind of became a circle.”

The two descendants, while distantly related on opposite sides of their families, have gotten to know one another over the years, and have helped each other with a variety of genealogical tasks to help advance their respective family trees.

As the study of genealogy trends toward an uncertain future as most involved are on the older side, the search for more information on Russell, his descendants and the lasting impact he has had on northwest Alabama will continue for those like Blankenship and Miller.

Miller said the reason he continues to research is due in large part to the connections he has made – both in the past and the present.

“Seeing how everyone was tied together,” he said of the intrigue of genealogy. “I had all of these people I’ve known all my life and had no idea we were related, but somehow everyone is tied together. It’s really fascinating to break down.”

For Blankenship, the drive that keeps him motivated to find more information about his family history lies within the process itself.

“I find that this gives you a real appreciation for history and your family,” Blankenship said. “When you learn one of your ancestors participated in something like a battle, or settled on a piece of prominent land, that’s a pretty neat thing to have in your family’s history.”