Alabama Marble Pioneers from Scotland

Alexander Herd and Margaret Martin were married in the Parish of Ryhnd, County of Perth, Scotland on 17 December 1804 and had two daughters and six sons. Daughters Jean (1805) and Ann (1807) and son James (1811) remained in Scotland while George (1809), Alexander (1813), David (1819), John (1822) and Thomas (1827) immigrated to the United States. Alexander Sr. and son James were both Carters – builders of carts as well as Pendiclers (farmers) with a small amount of land in Ruthven Park, Parish of Tibbermore, County of Perth, Scotland. After Alexander Sr. died on 20 December 1835, Margaret lived with her son James in Scotland until his death on 9 September 1870. Margaret died shortly after James on 26 November 1870.

Links to the marble business within the Herd family is that of George Herd, brother to Alexander Sr. who was listed on the 1841 Perth census as a “Marble Cutter” at the age of 65. Uncle George more than likely apprenticed David and John Herd to the marble cutting business. Also, sister Ann’s husband, James Clement, was a quarryman in Tibbermore Parish . Thomas, the youngest son of Alexander and Margaret, was a “Wright Master” (carpenter) and returned to Scotland in 1855 and died at the family home in Ruthven Park at the age of 29 due to an “affection of the brain.”

George Herd

George, the eldest son to immigrate, was born in Tibbermore Parish, County of Perth, Scotland on 13 Apr 1809 and immigrated to America around 1835 more than likely with his brother Alexander. Brothers David, John and Thomas followed in 1842 and according to family oral tradition, they “arrived in the U.S. on the day that John’s wife was born, after six months at sea.” David, John and Thomas enumerated on the 1841 census in Tibbermore Parish, County of Perth, Scotland with their brother James as head and their mother. The occupation on the census for David and John was “Mason Apprentice.” Alexander was not on the 1841 Tibbermore census leading me to believe that he immigrated with George.

George, known for his keen business acumen, first settled in Marble Valley in Coosa County, Alabama where he received a federal land patent on 26 February 1835 for 40 acres which included a marble quarry known as the “Richard Miller and George Herd Marble Quarry.” George partnered with Richard Miller, also a native of Scotland, and began to advertise and expand their new business.

George Herd and Richard Miller purchased another quarry near Herd’s Gap in 1840 for $400. The Herd Quarry, north east of Sylacauga, near the area known as “Herd’s Gap” typically produced white marble, white marble with blue veining and some dark blue marble as well as slate. Sylacauga, “The Marble City”, lies on one of the largest known beds of the purest, white marble in the world.

In 1842 the three younger Herd brothers arrived and the Herd brothers gradually expanded their business with additional quarries in Talladega County and offices in Sylacauga, Wetumpka, Montgomery, and Eutaw. Richard Miller and his brother Cornelius moved to Columbus, Mississippi in the 1840s and continued in the marble business as competitors. Alexander moved to Eutaw in Greene County, Alabama in the late 1840s and ran “Eutaw Marble Works” on the west side of the state.

The Herd brothers did not limit their business to marble — according to the Alabama Historical Society Quarterly,

Just when the Herd marble business reached its peak, George died unexpectedly and unmarried in 1855 at the age of 45. George is buried in the Fort Williams Cemetery with a marble obelisk monument made by his brother David.

Alexander Herd

Alexander, the second oldest of the Herd brothers to immigrate, relocated to Eutaw in Greene County, Alabama in the late 1840s. Alexander initially located the marble business on Main Street in the city of Eutaw, the county seat of Greene County. George Herd placed an advertisement in the Eutaw Independent Observer in 1846 announcing the new “Marble Yard”. It’s interesting to note that they advertised marble “either Italian or Talladega” considering that they owned a number of quarries at this time.

Alexander married Margaret E. Hamlet, daughter of William R. Hamlet and Sarah M. Anderson, in Greene County on 13 July 1853. In December of 1853, shortly after his marriage, Alexander purchased a house on Springfield Street in Eutaw, which still stands and is now registered on the National Register for Historic Places as the “Littleberry Pippen” house.

Alexander sold the Pippen house and the Main Street property and purchased another Historic home now known as the “Iredell P. Vaughn” house on Wilson Street in Eutaw, behind the First Presbyterian Church in 1859. The Greene County Historic Society moved the house to its present site to the west of the church and renovated it for the use of its members.

Margaret and Alexander raised two children to adulthood; William Hamlet Herd married and became an engineer in Birmingham, Alabama and their daughter Jennie Lee Herd became a private school teacher in Birmingham and died unmarried. Their eldest daughter, Lela, born in 1854 died in 1863 and is buried in the Mesopotamia Cemetery in Eutaw near Margaret’s family.

It made good business sense for Alexander to relocate to Greene County as it was the most populous county in the state of Alabama in 1850 and was widely regarded for its thriving and elegant communities. Rivers on three of its four borders provided ample transportation for the crops grown in this primarily agricultural county. The “Golden Age” of Greene County lasted from about 1840 until the Reconstruction Era began after the War Between the States .

It also made good business sense to locate “Eutaw Marble Works” near the Presbyterian Church as much of the congregation came from the old Mesopotamia Presbyterian Church. The original church was located in the southeast corner of the Mesopotamia Cemetery and was torn down in the late 1830s when Eutaw became the County seat. A lot of his “business” came from the church.

In the late 1850s the Herds began to sell their marble quarries because the marble was too soft. Henry P. Oden, a local Talladega carver, purchased one of the quarries and the following appeared in an advertisement placed in the Talladega Democratic Watchtower:

Evidently, the Herds had enough problems with the soft marble that Alexander felt it necessary to advertise “he would inform the public that he uses no Talladega Marble – nothing but ITALIAN and Vermont Marble used.”

It was during Greene County’s Golden Age, before the Civil War, that Alexander Herd commissioned the majority of the known Herd tombstones in the Greene County area. The earliest stones were signed simply “Herd” or “Herd and Bros” while the later stones were generally signed on the bottom right as “A. Herd, Eutaw” or on the bottom left as “G. Herd.”

David Herd, the Artist

David Herd, born in Scotland 12 May 1819, is credited with the “artistry” in the family as well as being the first to use Talladega marble for statuary purposes. David immigrated to the United States with his younger brothers John and Thomas in 1842 after David and John completed their mason apprenticeship in Tibbermore, Perth, Scotland . According to family oral tradition, David buried $10,000-$12,000 of his and John’s $20 gold pieces just after the Civil War. Unfortunately, David died unexpectedly before he could reveal the location of the gold to his brother John. Herd descendants continue to dig around the property searching for the gold – and have not been successful to date, which is not surprising since the Herds owned in excess of 1,000 acres at the time.

David carved many of the designs on Herd stones, while his brother John was principally responsible for the lettering. Herd designs included those popular for the period such as clasped hands, mason symbols, rosebuds and willow trees and were varied enough to suggest multiple carvers. A comparison of the willow tree found on John Alexander Rice’s grave and the willow on Malinda Lokey’s tombstone in Mesopotamia Cemetery show a marked difference in skill levels as well as style. There are some original designs among the Herd stones, such as the floral arrangement found on several stones in Greene and Pickens County and the “All Seeing Eye” design found on a fellow Scotsman’s grave in Greene County.

David and his brother John served from August of 1861 to April of 1863 in Company K & E of the 18th Regiment, Alabama Infantry. David was lucky to survive the Battle of Chickamauga where two-thirds of his unit was killed in action. He received a minor head-wound in the Battle of Shiloh and buried his friend John Stapp, Margaret’s brother, in one of his own shirts after the Battle in 1862 .

John Herd, Letters

John Herd, born Feb 1822 in Tibbermore Parish, County of Perth, Scotland, apprenticed as a mason in Scotland and arrived in America in 1842. John married Margaret Elizabeth Stapp, the daughter of John Stapp and Louisa Phillips, on 16 Oct 1865 in Talladega County, Alabama. John and Margaret raised a family of nine children in Herd’s Gap near Sylacauga.

According to a family interview, “David was the most talented sculptor but John could cut more letters in a day.”

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