A History of William L. Hornbuckle (Obtained from the book "Hornbuckles In America" by Naaman Lester Hornbuckle, William Austin Hornbuckle, and Leland Earl Pound)
William L. Hornbuckle was born in 1781 in Fairfax County, Virginia and went with his father, Thomas to Caswell County, North Carolina a few years later.
William died in late 1859 in Madison County, Alabama. Elizabeth may have died before him, although no real record of her death has been found.
William received one Negro boy named John after his mother's death in the will of his father, who died in 1799 in Caswell County, North Carolina.
He evidently went to Spartanburg County, South Carolina; about 1801, for he is a witness to one of James Hornbuckle's deeds made on October 29, 1801 and proved February 28, 1803.
William went back to Caswell County, North Carolina and lived there for a few years, witnessing a deed there made by his brother Richard's widow, Elizabeth Hornbuckle in 1804.
William probably married while in South Carolina and then returned to Caswell County, North Carolina, where he lived a short time, before moving to Tennessee, where his first son was born.
Where William's first son, Harris, was born is unknown, but it may have been French Lick (later Nashville). Census records conflict as to Harris' place of birth, one giving Tennessee and the other Alabama. It's possible that he was born en route from North Carolina to Alabama.
There are three immigration routes that William may have taken in his travels to the new territory that was opening up in the Mississippi Territory that was the become Alabama. First was through the Cumberland Gap that so many pioneers used and this was one way that William could have come to Alabama. The Wilderness Road, the major route for American pioneers traveling into Kentucky and the Ohio Valley, was cleared and marked by Daniel Boone and 30 ax men in 1775. It extended from Eastern Virginia through the Cumberland Gap to the Kentucky...