Goodloe, Lane, Pride, Barton and Rutland Families Collection

Among the early settlers from Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee to come to northwest Alabama, were the Lane, Pride, Goodloe, Rutland, and Barton fmailies, some of whom arrived as early as 1817.

Around 1811, the expansion of the cotton kingdom brought the need for more land. The federal government adopted a policy of removing the Southern Indians to the West. George Colbert , the Chichasaw Chief, refused to join the other tribes who had built a confederacy agains the white people. Because of a deep friendship between the Lanes and the Colberts, George Colbert sold his home on the south bank of the Tennessee River (about six miles from Cherokee, Alabama, where the Natchez Trace crosses the river) to Isaac Lane, whose descendants hold the property to this date.

The Lanes were probably the first of the ancestors to come to Alabama. Isaac Lane was born on February 12, 1787; he married Mary Pride on January 11, 1810. Their daughter Mary Lane, was born on August 16, 1817, and she married Robert Atlas Goodloe on December 24, 1835. The R. A. Goodloe family is the primary family in this collection.

The genealogy of the R. A. Goodloes has been traced back to 350 AD. Robert Goodloe's father was David Short Goodloe (July 26, 1776-October 13, 1845); the collection contains several of his papers. David Short Goodloe was one of the three financiers who built the first railroad in Alabama.

Robert A. Goodloe was born on December 7, 1814. He graduated from LaGrange College. He married Mary Lane in 1835; the couple had six children: Isaac Lane (Ike); Sara Louise (Sallie); Mary (Pop); Robert Atlas Jr.; James Mhoon (Jamie); and Susan Turner. At David Short Goodloe's death, R. A. Goodloe either inherited or bought the plantation known as Myrtle Hall. Robert A. Goodloe made his living growing and selling cotton. He died on March 8, 1882.