The Background
The 1820 census returns for Monroe County, Alabama were lost — along with most other counties — and with them went the names of individuals who were there when the county had its beginnings.
The courthouse fire in 1833 made matters even worse.
A court case that took place in Monroe Co AL, John B. Lorez vs. Nathaniel Broughton and Christopher Coulliette, was tried beginning in 1820 and ending in 1823. The case involved goods brought to Monroe County from Georgia. Broughton and Coulliette, both from Sumter Co, South Carolina, had struck up a deal with John Lorez during a stop-over in Georgia during their wagon train migration to Alabama. Broughton and Coulliette were to carry to Monroe Co and sell a plethora of goods supplied by Lorez. These good were sold in Monroe Co at a store located in a place called ”Limestone” from Spring 1817 through 1819. Broughton and Coulliette were to then pay Lorez for the cost of the goods and one-third of the profits; this never happened, so Lorez sued Broughton and Coulliette.
Lorez won his case, and Broughton and Coulliette were to each pay half of the amount due Lorez.
But that wasn’t the end of the story.
Coulliette had headed back to South Carolina, so Broughton ended up paying the entire amount due Lorez, including Coulliette’s half. Ten years later, Broughton headed to Sumter Co SC to catch up with Coulliette and sue him for the money he’d paid on Coulliette’s behalf just to get the case settled. When Broughton went to Sumter Co SC to sue Coulliette, the entire case file from the Monroe Co court went with him, and that is the only reason it survives to this day.
The value in this surviving court case is that when individuals made purchase on credit, they signed notes of credit. There were many, many notes that were never paid, and they went to South Carolina along with the rest of the court case.
An every-name index has been created, in two parts:
The first section includes the names of people who took part in the case – justices, witnesses, sheriffs, counsel, etc. Dates 1833 and 1835 are Monroe Co names taking part in the Sumter Co SC case
The second section includes all the names from the unpaid notes of credit. The earliest notes are dated May 1817 and there were none after 1819.
Sumter County court officials’ names were not extracted, to avoid confusion.
The entire court case was microfilmed and can be read here.