GEOGRAPHY IS DESTINY - WE SHAPED THE FRONTIER, AND IT SHAPED US
The history of CGH’s controlling owners has been closely connected with the Tennessee Valley Region ever since John Oldham Connally (1783 - 1845) relocated from North Carolina to Huntsville, Alabama. The modern-day family is largely comprised of the mixed-race descendants of John Connally and his siblings: Archibald Conley (Illinois), Drury Connally (Texas), and George Connally (Georgia). The owners of CGH are among their descendants.
The original Connally name occurs in American legend as early as the time of Jamestown Era. The original spelling in the Ireland is Ó Conghalaigh - a Gaelic-Irish surname. It derives from the forename Conghal, meaning "fierce as a hound". It is often anglicised as Connolly, Connally, Connelly, and Conley. The varied American spellings of Ó Conghalaigh name used by European settlers appear to have been the result of misspelling of the original name, whimsical choice, and low literacy.
OBSCURE BEGINNINGS
The adjacent map tells the story of America in 1783. This was seven (7) years after the Revolutionary War began in 1776, and seven (7) years before George Washington was named President of the newly formed United States in 1890. It’s hard to believe it. Just look at how much land Massachusetts, Virginia, and Georgia held !
The aforementioned Connally/Connelly/Conley family carved out existence in the wilderness around 1650. Then, a family member showed up in rural Lancaster County Virginia a century later. Various family members moved in and out of obscurity, before moving to Farnham County near Richmond, Virginia around 1800. It is speculation that John Oldham Connally acquired a mixed-race slave girl around this time period, near Richmond, a major slave market.
The story seemed to have turned, when a branch of the Conleys/Connallys/Connellys moved just across the state border to Caswell County, North Carolina. The ‘Western Frontier’ at that time, was everything west of the coastal cities of the 13 Colonies which formed a new nation in 1780. James Conley was born in this period.