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1540
Spanish under Desoto, in 1540, just 340 years ago
1800
Family progenitor James Conley was born in Cumberland, North Carolina. He was the son of John Oldham Connally (alternately spelled Connally, Conoly, Connelly in official government records) and an unidentified slave girl. The modern family’s story begins in river valleys of the southern Appalachian Mountains in present-day northwest South Carolina, western North Carolina, east Tennessee, and north Georgia.
1805
Pioneer John Hunt, led a group of Tennessee natives to uncharted territory along the Tennessee River. That area had recently been seized from the Chickasaw and Cherokee tribes. Many Tennessee natives followed Hunt, populating the area around a natural water pool called the “Big Spring.”
Artist’s interpretation John Hunt camping at the ‘Big Spring’ at the location of modern day Huntsville, Alabama.
1809
The U.S. government opened up land in Northern Alabama for public sale. A group of wealthy Virginia land speculators called the Broad River Group buys up much of the Big Spring area - which is today all of downtown Huntsville. The Broad River Group led by LeRoy Pope, was named for the River approximately 75 miles north of present-day Augusta, Georgia, to which the group had emigrated in 1790. Sensing a big business opportunity in cotton, the group abandoned the Augusta area for the new Alabama Territory.
1810
John Oldham Connally moves to Huntsville. He has a group bring the stones from his former home on the Cumberland Plateau in North Carolina. Stone Masons plan for the construction of a new resort.
1811
Hostilities with the British reach their peak, the War of 1812 begins, Town of Twickenham is renamed renamed "Huntsville" by the state legislature.
1816
Green Bottom Inn & Equestrian Sporting Center opens, on the edge of Huntsville at the current site of Alabama A&M University.
1818
James and Jane have their first child, Harriet.
1819
Felix Conley is born.
Alabama Territory constitutional convention held in Huntsville as its capitol city. The U.S. Government approves the new State of Alabama. The Fearn Canal began construction as the first canal in the state and was completed tens years later. The canal connected the Big Spring with the Tennessee River, 10 miles to the south, supporting the shipping of cotton.
1819
Felix Conley is born.
1840
Huntsville population reaches 2,496. The Green Bottom reached the apex of its fame as a resort for the powerful and influential. Travel in this era was dangerous, and guests often enjoyed extended stays of a month or longer. Presidents Jackson, Monroe, and Polk boarded their horses at Green Bottom in stables managed by James Conley’s sons.
