Article about Daniel Cribbs 1803-1891
According to THIS DATE IN ALABAMA HISTORY, by W. J. Boles (an article
in an Alabama newspaper): "When Daniel Cribbs was 13 years of age, he performed
a service that won for him the highest praise of army officers and earned
a place among the immortals. When Hull surrendered, in 1813, Gov.
Meigs desired to send a message to the governor at Detroit and young Cribbs
volunteered to take it. He made the long trip through a wilderness
infested with Indian hostiles and enemy soldiers, successfully eluding
would-be capturers several times. He was born in Westmoreland County,
Pennsylvania, May 8, 1800 [1803], moved with the family to [New] Philadelphia
in 1813, and was there when Hull surrendered. He came to Alabama
in 1823, locating in Greene County, but a few years later moved to Tuscaloosa,
operating steamboats on the Tombigbee and Warrior Rivers. An explosion
on one of his boats a short distance below Tuscaloosa, in 1845, caused
heavy losses, and during the gold rush of 1850 he joined the thousands
of men who made their way to California, where they expected to find fabulous
wealth. Cribbs was one of the successful gold 'rushers' and with
a large fortune returned to Tuscaloosa, invested it in slaves, a stoneware
factory and lands. The stoneware factory, the first in the state,
he operated until the War Between the States began. He and Amy La
Vergy of Greene County, were married in 1828, and to them were born nine
children. One of them [Harvey H.] was elected sheriff of Tuscaloosa
County by largest majority ever given to a candidate up to that time; resigned
to organize Lumsden's Battery, of which he was commissioned first lieutenant.
He resigned in 1864 to do scout duty and was captured near Charleston,
S. C."
The DICTIONARY OF ALABAMA BIOGRAPHY states that Daniel
moved from Pennsylvania in 1806, the steamboat that exploded was the "Tuscaloosa";
he was sheriff in Tuscaloosa from 1842-1845.
On his death, the Tuscaloosa Times on November 4,
1891 - "The venerable Daniel Cribbs departed this life last night at 10
o'clock, at the residence of his son,
Harvey H. Cribbs. The funeral
will be held from the Baptist church this afternoon at 4 o'clock, after
which the body will be laid to rest in Greenwood cemetery. He was
in his 92nd year, having been born in 1800."
There is conflict in records with Daniel's year of
birth. Daniel's own words is that he was born in 1800. Church
records record his birth in 1803. The church records are most likely
correct. If so, either Daniel lost track of his actual birth year
or he, for whatever reason, falsified his age. -WHC
See also A
Brief Biography of Daniel Cribbs by William Hoyt "Bill" Cribbs
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