Alexander Gainer

Quick Facts

Significance:

Florida Homesteader

Place of Birth:

South Carolina

Date of Birth:

About 1830

Place of Death:

Live Oak, Suwannee County, Florida

Date of Death:

Between 1887-1896

Place of Burial:

Eastside Memorial Cemetery, Live Oak, Suwannee County, Florida

The earliest record available for “Aleck Gainer” was a record of his voter registration on August 20, 1867, in Live Oak, Florida. Interestingly, it has a line crossed through it. The notations indicate he was living in the county for four months. The column that indicates whether he voted or not was not checked. Otherwise, there is nothing noted.

In September 1868, the Pensacola and Georgia Railroad sold land in Live Oak to Alexander and his stepson in-law, George Manker. In 1870, Alexander and his wife, Frances, were listed in the census with their son, Edward. However, Alex and Frances were not formally married until 1874, when they were married in the First Baptist Church, now called the African Baptist Church. The 1870s would see Frances purchase property (1871 and 1874), but Alex would not purchase property again until he completed his Homestead claim in 1877.

On May 11, 1872, Alex filed his application #5609, for a Homestead claim of 39.89 acres. On the same date, he swore an affidavit stating that he had filed the claim but “by reason of distance” could not personally appear at the land office in Tallahassee. On June 14, 1872, there is a Receiver’s receipt for seven dollars paid to the Receiver’s office in Tallahassee.

On June 1,1877, Alex’s witnesses, Caleb Simpkins and Robert Allen testified that ever since June 14, 1872, Alex had

  "…occupied and cultivated and improved the NE ¼ of the SE ¼ of Section 26, Township 2, South of Range 13 East as a homestead from the date above continuously from the date above to the present time, and that this affidavit is made to enable him to complete his title to the said homestead…”

It goes on to say that they were unable to go the General Land Office to give testimony “on account of distance and want of means to pay the expenses.” Thus, they gave testimony before the Justice of the Peace, “M. M. Blackburn,” in Suwannee County. They signed by making their mark. An additional sentence was added after their signatures saying, “and he has built a house thereon, & cultivated about 10 acres, and made other valuable improvements.”

On June 14, 1877, Alex made his final affidavit in support of his claim. He stated that he had settled and cultivated his homestead land since June 14, 1872, that he hadn’t “alienated” the land, that he was the sole owner, and actual settler. He swore that he bore allegiance to the United States “and that I have not heretofore perfected or abandoned an entry under this act.” After paying an additional and final two dollars to the Receiver in the Gainesville office, he received his Final Certificate #1236. Notations in the file indicate however, that final approval was not until May 11, 1878 and the Patent was not recorded until June 24, 1878, in Land Record Book Volume 3, page 26.

Alex did not record the deed with the Suwannee County registrar right away. In June 1886, the Homestead claim was filed in Book J, page 288. However, in the very next entry, “Alexandre Gainer” sold to Justice of the Peace, M. M. Blackburn, the same property, for $500. Alex appeared for the last time in the deed records in January 1887, when he and Frances sold property to her daughter Carry (“Corra”) Manker, widow of George Manker. 

Alex is assumed to have died sometime between 1887 and 1896, when his “widow,” Frances, sold property to James Moore and C. J. Manker, her grandson. Frances is believed to have died between 1896 and 1900. She does not appear in the 1900 census. Alex and Frances were most likely buried in the inaccessible Old City Cemetery section of Eastside Memorial Cemetery in Live Oak, where most family members were buried.

Patent Details - BLM GLO Records
 

~ Contributed by Margo Lee Williams, descendant

Photo of Margo Lee Williams, contributor and descendant.
Photo Credit: Marvin T. Jones of Marvin T. Jones & Associates

More from the contributor: Alexander Gainer/Gainor was my paternal, step, great-great grandfather. He was married to my grandfather’s (William Gainer Williams) maternal grandmother, Frances (Smiley?) Gainer. I do not know very much about his life before emancipation. According to my aunt, Lute Williams Mann, he had been in the Civil War and had a “peg leg” from the war. However, I find no evidence that he served in any Union forces and can only conclude he had been forced to work in the Confederate Army, though in what capacity I do not know. The only information I can verify about his early life comes from the census where he lists his home state as South Carolina. All documentation about his life that I have been able to locate pertains to his life in Suwannee County, Florida.

Alex’s witnesses were Caleb Simpkins and Robert Allen. Caleb’s daughter, Lettie A. Simpkins, attended the State Normal and Industrial College (Florida A & M University) with my grandmother, Lela Virginia Farnell (daughter of Randel Farnell), who married William Gainer Williams, Alex’s step grandson and my grandfather. Robert Allen was the Baptist minister who married Alex and Frances.

More about the contributor: Margo Lee Williams is an award-winning author and genealogist/family historian. She is currently the Deputy Registrar for the Sons and Daughters of the United States Middle Passage (SDUSMP), and a former editor of the Journal of the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society. She is a graduate of Marquette University and has her M. A. degree in Sociology from Hunter College and an M. A. in Religious Education from The Catholic University of America. She worked as a Religious Education director for over 20 years at various Washington, D. C., area churches and another eight years as a National Service Officer with Vietnam Veterans of America. She is currently the Historian for the Strieby Congregational Church, School, and Cemetery Cultural Heritage and Literary Landmark Site, in Asheboro, North Carolina. Though born and raised in New York City, she currently lives in Maryland.