Early Settler, Planter
|Born:||September 1, 1785, Brunswick County, Virginia|
|Died:||August 13, 1869, Madison County, Alabama|
|Buried:||Maple Hill Cemetery, Huntsville, Alabama|
• James Nicholas Fletcher "moved his family 'lock, stock and barrel' from Richmond, Virginia, to the deep South. They arrived in North Alabama in 'carry-alls,' carriages, chaises, surreys, covered wagons and buggies. Several other families came with them. The Fletchers settled on 'Nubbin Ridge,' which is located on the border of Madison and Limestone Counties. They bought acreage and built their homes there because of the beauty of the knolls and rolling meadows. They named it 'Nubbin Ridge' because the land was so poor they said it could not produce even 'nubbins' of corn. The land is now among the most productive in North Alabama due to the efforts of these pioneers." - Goldsmith and Fulton
• First sheriff of Nottingham County, Virginia. - Rankin
• This story was told by Dr. Fletcher's daughter about her father and grandfather (in a thirty-nine-page book titled: "Dr. Richard Matthew Fletcher, 1830-1906, A Sketch of his Life and Works" by Octavia Fletcher Frazieruring - CD_ROM available from The Madison Station Historical Preservation Society) "During the last year of the Civil War, Richard was sitting on the porch at Aspen Dell (name of the plantation to "Nubbin Ridge") with his father. James told his son to get a ladder and see if he could work out a knot from the top of one of the eight wooden columns of the porch by putting a small nail partially into it. Richard was able to do the job, and then his father disappeared for a while and came back with a sack containing $10,000 in gold coins. He told Richard to drop the gold into the knothole, from which the coins fell to the bottom of the inside of the column. Then Richard removed the nail and glued the knot back into the hole. Every time thereafter that the Union troops came to search for money and other valuables, James would take his rocking chair and lean back against that column while talking with the searchers. After the war, a hole was cut into the bottom of the column, and the money saved many local Confederates from starvation and foreclosure." - Rankin
• Married Matilda G Golden Cheatham in March 1826 at Chesterfield Co., VA. She was born in Chesterfield Co., VA on Jan. 10, 1808, died in Limestone Co., AL April 1, 1883. - Maple Hill
• "Grandfather James Fletcher moved his extensive family, and they settled on 'Nubbin Ridge.' Notable Grandchildren: Dr. David Moore (son of Rebecca Fletcher Moore), Algermon Fletcher (banker and member of the state legislature) and Richard Fletcher (went to medical school in Pennsylvania and practiced in northern Alabama.)" - Clay & Rohr
• - Find A Grave
• He was the oldest son of Richard Fletcher and Nancy Ann Fletcher (his father's first wife). His father moved to Alabama at the end of his life. - Roots Web
• Children of James Nicholas and his first wife(1786-1925):
John James Fletcher 1806 - 1884
Edward A. Fletcher 1808 -
Children of James Nicholas Fletcher and Matilda Golden Cheatham (1808 - 1883)
Dr. Richard Matthew Fletcher 1830 - 1905
Mary Branch Fletcher 1831 - 1858
Algernon Sydenham Fletcher 1833 - 1908
William Edward Fletcher 1837 -
Peter Beasley Fletcher 1840 - 1920
James Lockhart Fletcher 1845 - 1927
Walter Scott Fletcher 1849 - 1927 - Ancestry.comRelated Links:
• Ancestry.com - Paged owned by LindaHSmith1951 (Originally found at http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/5761038/person/6338667055.)
• Clay & Rohr - Echoes of the Past: Old Mahogany Table Stories, by Virginia Clementine Clay, Edited and Annotated by Nancy M. Rohr, 2010, page 98.
• Find A Grave - Page created by Leigh
• Goldsmith and Fulton - Medicine Bags and Bumpy Roads: A Heritage of Healing in Madison County, Town and Country, by Jewell S. Goldsmith and Helen D. Fulton, 1985, pages 135-137.
• Maple Hill - Maple Hill Cemetery, Phase One, by Diane Robey, Dorothy Scott Johnson, John Rison Jones, Jr., & Frances C. Roberts (Huntsville-Madison County Historical Society), 1995, page 65.
• Pruitt - Eden of the South: A Chronology of Huntsville, Alabama, 1805-2005, by Raneé G. Pruitt, Editor, 2005, page 52.
• Rankin - Memories of Madison: A Connected Community, 1857-2007, by John Patrick Rankin, 2007, page 103.
• Rankin File - John P. Rankin has, over the years, collected information about families living in Madison County, AL. He has made these files available here at Huntsville History Collection. The files include Rankin's notes, photos, digital copies of documents, and clippings from newspapers and periodicals. He has a Fletcher family file and some of it might apply to James Nicholas Fletcher.
• Roots Web - Genealogy, Compiler Linda Smith, Harvest, Alabama. (Originally found at http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~panthercreek/p116.htm.)
The Following Pages Link to this Page:
• Captain Algernon Sidney Fletcher (1833)
• Charles Fletcher
• Clay & Rohr
• Dr. Richard M. Fletcher (1869)
• Dr. Richard Matthew Fletcher (1830)
• James Edward Fletcher
• Maple Hill
• Shelby Sidney Fletcher