M. T. Crossland was the father of William Crossland

This is the restored log home that belonged to M.T. Crossland. Picture taken September 2004 and yes that is my sister (Carol) standing in front of the home in Echola, Alabama. The home is over 175 years old...

In 1996 John Webb bought the property that once belonged to Meridith Taylor Crossland and discovered the log dugout and spent the next 2 years restoring the home. The log house consisted originally of two log rooms on either side of a very narrow hallway, with two matching exterior-end chimneys. At the end of the hall was an open porch and down the left side was two more rooms from which you entered via an open hall (the halls have now been enclosed). The house was an "L" shape and the two back rooms consisted of the kitchen and dining room with a brick stack chimney between each room. The fireplaces were used for heating and cooking. In the front room on the left side of the house is a narrow and steep stairway leading to the second floor. There is one original window in the attic room. In this part of the house there are still some of the original flooring of wide pine boards, logs notched and pegged and small logs used for roof rafters. The board were hewn with an ax not a saw. The ax goughes are clearly visible. The front of the home, porch area and south side are all original (occasionally reparired) and exposed to the elements. The thought comes to mind that our ancestors were artisians in building these structures and knew what they were doing.

From family lore, passed down through the generations, M.T. was of partial Cherokee Indian descent. The name "Cross" and "Crosslin" are on the "Trail of Tears" list of Cherokees from Tennessee. The same names appear on the later Cherokee registry. Some of M.T.'s siblings and his parents went to Oklahoma.

In 1865 M.T. Crossland took "Amnesty Oath" in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama

In Civil War history books, M.T. is recognized as one who fed and helped southern soldiers. His sons and sons-in-law served in the Confederate Army. He served as Constable and Justice of the Peace in Tuscaloosa County. He owned slaves who helped with the family farm operations prior to the war. After the Emancipation Proclamation he let former slaves live on his land as sharecroppers. In 1868 he ran and was elected to the Alabama Legislature on the Republican ticket. Family members felt he ran to help hold the overriding Federal control during reconstruction. Statements have come down through the generations and are still discussed at family gatherings in Echola, Alabama that an argument had ensued at a community store concerning some former slave owner's slaves who were now sharecropping on M. T.'s farm. Most of the citizens in West Tuscaloosa County did not agree with M.T.'s thinking regarding the freed Negroes. Words passed and tempers flared; a statement was made that M. T. would never get to Montgomery to be sworn in. On November 11, 1868, M. T. and Simeon Brunson, State Representative of Pickens County, were riding horseback on their way to Tuscaloosa to meet with others to travel to Montgomery, Alabama, to attend the Oath of Office Meeting. As the two were riding on the Upper Columbus Road near the Sipsey River, only a few miles from his home they were ambushed on the wooden covered bridge known as the Shirley Bridge.  M.T. was carried back to his house and died three days later of his wounds. There was an investigation, but no one was ever charged with his murder, although there was a $5,000 reward posted.