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settlement of the estate has been found.
In Sept. 1819 John Warren Looney was a witness to the will of Abner Tatum and also one of the appraisers. He was appointed Justice of the Peace 21 April 1821.
The home plantation where the Absalom Looney family lived, or at least 100 acres of it, was again offered for rent in the Huntsville Republican, 28 Dec. 1821; also the plantation of the Looney Estate at Big Cove. In March 1825 John W. Looney seems engaged in horse breeding and had a stable 1 1/2 miles west of Mullen Creek and 5 miles from Traina.
On 13 April 1824 John W. Looney sold to Edward H. Vann all that 1/4 of section 11 which was granted to Absalom Looney by Grant dated 27 June 1817. (Madison Deeds IJ, 31.) On 8 Jan. 1825 John W. Looney and wife Nancy sold to Thomas and William Branden the SW 1/4 of Section 12, the original Looney homestead in Madison Co., purchased by Absalom Looney, assignee of John Hunt, and granted to said Looney, Cert. No. 75, in 1814. (Madison Deeds IJ, 400.)
During the years 1820 to 1826 there were a number of lawsuits by John W. Looney against various persons indebted to him and some against him for like cause.
John W. Looney was a miller and millwright and in 1825 he wished to build a water grist mill and other water works on his land on the waters of Indian Creek at Lanier's Ford. He owned land on both sides of the creek, but the dam might cause part of the land of Isaac Jackson, John C. Ayers, and the Burwell C. Lanier estate to be overflowed. A court action was taken to have 7 freeholders meet on the premises and assess possible damage to the
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above mentioned and any other parties, and to report in August. At February court 1827 Looney was granted permission to erect his mill upon paying Isaac Jackson $ 2.00 per acre for 5 acres what might be overflowed.
In the Democrat of Huntsville on 20 Feb. 1827 Looney's warehouse at his mill on Indian Creek was announced as partly finished and ready for storage of cotton.
On 23 Nov. 1827 the state brought action against John W. Looney for maintaining a common nuisance. The action was continued from time to time and on 19 Nov. 1828 a jury found the defendant not guilty. (John W. Looney himself was a juror at the fall term of court in 1828).
In the Democrat of Huntsville, Ala., for 28 Nov. 1828, John W. Looney announced that his mills were in complete order and ready for the reception of cotton. After the death of Owen Cammel in 1824 in Madison co., Ala. (will dated 5 April and proved 6 May, Minutes of Orphans Court 3, 72), John w. Looney was named sole executor. He gave bond of $ 6,000 on 7 May 1824. The goods and chattels were sold on 5 Dec. 1826 on 12 months' credit, and 1/4 section of land was sold on like credit on 4 Aug. 1828 by John W. Looney, Executor, to Stephen S. Ewing for $ 455.00. (Madison Deeds L, 519). Settlement was made 13 May 1834. (Minutes of Orphans Court No. 3, p 494, 495.)
During the years 1831 to 1837 John W. Looney entered and purchased land at least 5 times, a total of 520 acres. With wife Nancy he sold the "mill tract" on 21 Nov. 1834 to Thomas Fearn, George Fearn, Alfred Howell, and Thomas Patterson. This sale included
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mill, mill house, etc., on 240 acres entered by J.W. Looney in 1818 and 1831. (Madison Deeds P, 263). On 13 March 1848 John Warren Looney and wife Nancy sold to John Ward and Hamilton G. Bradford for $ 6,240 a total of 520 acres including 320 acres purchased by Absalom Looney 26 Feb. 1818. (Madison Deeds W. 583). This probably included the plantation on which they were living, about 5 miles N.E. of Trians, just before the family removed to Texas.
John Warren Looney made trips to Texas in 1845 and in 1846 to purchase lands, chiefly on both sides of the San Antonio river in Goliad, Victoria and Regugio Counties; also southward in the San Patricio Co.
(Insofar as the writer knows, no systematic searches have been made in Texas to locate these lands. At least one deed is recorded in Austin, Texas, from Isaac W. Johnson to John W. Looney of Alabama, dated and acknowledged at Goliad, Texas, on 22 Jan. 1847, for 1'3 of a league of land--that is, about 1480 acres. At least 3 surveys to Jno. W. Looney in Refugie Co. have been brought to the writer's attention, for 1,342, 800 and 133 acres.)
In 1848, after selling all lands in Alabama, he started for Texas with most of his family and all moveable possessions. Mrs. Mary Ellen (Campbell) Capen, a granddaughter, has given traditional accounts as follows:
Mrs. Nancy Looney and her mother Elizabeth rode all the way in a handsome carriage with silk lining, tassells, folding steps, and glass doors "similar to but finer" than the one that she had seen late in life at Mt. Vernon! (Years later the carriage was used by some of the grandsons on hunting expeditions
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A slave called Uncle Steve sat on a high front seat and drove the span of horses that led the caravan. Next came a 3-seated back or "ambulance" driven by son-in-law Harrison Campbell, with his wife Susan (Looney) Campbell and their 6-month-old twins; also 2 slave girls to care for the babies. The furniture, etc., and other children and grandchildren followed in "covered wagons"; and there were 17 other slaves to drive the horses and cattle. (Census records show that John W. Looney owned 7 slaves in 1830 and 17 in 1849).
The well-traveled trail led through San Augustine and/or Nacegdeches where John warren Looney died and was buried after an illness (dysentery) of very short duration. His last words in answer to Nancy's questions were, "By all means go on to Goliad." This they did and finally they saw in the distance, shining in the sunlight, the (deserted) white adobe dwellings of the once populous Mexican town of La Bahia, not far beyond Goliad. they had stepped at a small stone store near a few picket houses and log cabins. "How far to Goliad?" they asked, the answer was. "You're in Goliad now." At his Mrs. Harrison Campbell, mother of the twins, exclaimed, "My God, and we've traveled this far to such a hole." Whereupon it is said she cried day and night for three weeks.
They moved into log cabins with dirt floors. Some of the group returned soon to Alabama. It was years before they saw the first frame house built in Goliad. Mrs. Looney knew nothing about her land or their value. She signed deeds from
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time to time to get money to live on. A lawyer obtained custody of her box of deeds. courthouses were easily burned in these days and in some cases possession of the land could be taken without title.
Mrs. Nancy Looney died in 1868 at Goliad, probably without realizing the benefits that John Warren Looney had expected through removal of the family from Alabama to Texas. At the 1860 census, however, she was listed in Goliad, Texas, as having real estate worth $30,000 and personal property of like value.
John 4 Warren Looney and his wife Nancy had at least the following children (all born in Madison co., Ala.):
Harriet Looney b. ca 1816, m. (Madison Co., Ala. Mar. book
4, p. 430) 22 Aug. 1838 John R. Grantland. The 1840
census seems to indicate that they lived with her
parents then. They had at least 7 children:
James Grantland b. ca 1840, d. Texas; m. Martha Ray
and had Ideal Grantland m. J.M. Johnson, Cadiz,
Texas.
Thomas Grantland b. ca 1843, d. Texas, m. Lucinda
Reed (2 boys)
John Grantland b. ca 1845.
Robert J. Grantland b. Ala ca 1848.
Samuel Grantland b. ca 1850.
Mary Grantland m. Owens.
Amanda Harriet Grantland m. Albert C. Arnette, d.
ca 1880's. they had 4 daus. including Minnie
Arnette and Mrs. Will Lee Mitchell.
Ann Elizabeth Looney b. ca 1818. m. Judge Wm. Hunter (b. ca 1810
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