Martin Connection Newsletter

Our Story

We are the descendants of Henry and Rose Martin of Yorkville, Alabama, later renamed Ethelsville during the Reconstruction Era. Our family name "Martin" was inherited through slavery. Alexander Martin was a slave owner from Union, South Carolina during the late 1790's. He and several other men from this district were given government grants to establish a township in Pickens County, Alabama. Among the slaves he brought with him were three sisters, Hester, Hickey, and Margaret who he separated, by selling one to the Gore family and another to the Brown family. There is no documentation that shows which he sold or which he kept, but the one he kept had two sons, Henry and Charles. Not much is known about Charles after he left the area with his wife Fannie and two daughters, Narcie and Ella. However, Henry, who was the oldest, remained in Yorkville and married a woman named Rose and they reared seven children together, Calvin, Harvey Louis, Lutha, Levi, Alonzo, Cornelia, and Manerva. Through them, the Martins of today derived.