In 1809, when James was roughly 9-years-old, his father John Oldham Connally set out from North Carolina to explore opportunities in the ‘Georgia Territory’, the newly opened western frontier. Wealthy plantation owners, speculators, and adventurers flooded into the region which had been cleared of Native Americans. An avid horseman, John Oldham Connally saw his opportunity in a hill crest on the northern edge of the town. Not yet a wealthy man, John Oldham Connally cobbled together funds, purchased the hill crest and drew up plans to build a grand hotel and resort dedicated to flat racing, steeple chase, fox hunting, and other gentlemanly horse competitions.

James Conley (born 1800) was the coach driver, stable master, and eventually equerry and head butler at the Green Bottom Inn & Equestrian Resort, a nationally known hotel in Huntsville, Alabama. James was the acknowledged extra-marital son of John Oldham Connally. James Conley was born somewhere along the Cumberland Plateau, which is the southern part of the Appalachian Mountains, on the border of Virginia and North Carolina.

As the extra-marital son of John Oldham Connally, and a slave girl, his mother's identity is unknown. Confusion exists about James' birth year as John Oldham Connally acquired a mixed-race slave girl around 1799, near Richmond, a major slave market. This son was three-quarters white, and, given the murky legal status of newly declared ‘Georgia Territories’ James’ status was that of an indentured servant.

His many descendants would distinguish themselves in law, business, science, athletics, and most enduringly, equestrian pursuits.

EARLY LIFE (1800-1815)

As was the custom of the times, the phenotypically caucasian-looking illegitimate children of status-conscious slave owners and their slave women were trained in higher status positions as chefs, butlers, seamstresses, weavers, carpenters, blacksmiths, gardeners, and musicians in the household. James was trained to occupy a highly coveted position as both coach driver and butler. Thus, he had to drive his father every where and also attend to his appearance.

Local powerbroker LeRoy Pope hosted grand events in the fast growing city of Huntsville. John Oldham Connally was often in attendance, with his handsome and clever illegitimate son by his side as his "body man" attending to his personal needs. This conferred high status to young James among Free Coloreds and Slaves in town.

On June 1, 1819. President Monroe visited Green Bottom Equestrian Resort for rest, recovery, and relaxation. A young 19-year-old James Conley greeted the larger-than-life Monroe, took the reins of his horses as well as those of Monroe's retinue, then led the horses to the stables which young James managed as Chief Equerry.

This service to President Monroe instantly made James Conley a very important young man in the Huntsville's 'Colored' community. Subsequent visits to Green Bottom by Presidents Jackson and Polk sealed James Conley's apex social status in Colored Huntsville for the rest of his life.

This exposure to President Monroe in 1819, in effect James, altered the trajectory of James' life forever and opened his mind to a larger world. James' descendants from these children, led by his daughter Harriet and husband Green, became far more prominent than John Oldham Connally's other descendants from his other children. This was the beginning of the saga of the Conley Family we know today.