Hal's Story
On July 23, 2008, CNN debuted a documentary, "Black
in America." During the first 15 or 20 minutes, Hal Rand--dead for 99 years!--got his 15 minutes of fame. Many of his descendants were featured in the first 20 minutes, and, IMHO, they did old Hal proud. The Rands are a fine group of people, and this Rand--Hal's gr-gr-grandaughter with his white wife, Sallie Mullens--couldn't be prouder of her cousins many accomplishments. Folks, CNN didn't even scratch the surface. The Rands are accomplished, interesting, and interested. I'm so proud of them!
But what about our rogue of an ancestor, Hal Rand? He had two families. At the same time. In the same place. Well, it is not for yours truly to judge him. All I can be is thankful for what we now have.
HAL RAND, 1822-1909
Born
in Wake County, NC, 1822, William Harrison "Hal" Rand
was four years' old when his parents moved to what is now
Colbert County, AL. The Rands arrived with Hal's three maternal
aunts, aka the Curtis sisters of Wake County, their husbands,
and their children. Hal's father, John Rand, came from a
line of builders and millers, and he not only carried his
millstone across the TN River at Muscle Shoals, he set up
a mill first thing in what was then Franklin County, near
La Grange, while his richer brothers-in-law jumped in to
buy property. Eventually, John had property, but by the time
of his death, at the end of the Civil War, his fortunes were
greatly reversed.
His son Hal was long gone by the Civil War.
On
2 Aug 1842, in Lawrence Co, AL, Hal married a girl--she was
a couple of years his senior--who lived fairly close to the
Rand farm, Sarah Ann "Sallie" Mullens, daughter of James Mullens (many in the family spell it an assortment of ways, but evidently James used the "e" instead of an "i.") Sallie's mother was née
Rebecca Smith. Hal and Sally eventually became the parents
of seven children, six of whom reached adulthood. There were
three kids in the family when the couple decided to leave
AL for Chickasaw County, MS. That was 1847.
Evidently they didn't travel alone.
Oral
tradition says that Hal had a second "wife" riding in the wagon with Sallie and the children. This was Ann Mullins, later Ann Rand and Ann Alsbrooks, a mixed-race female. Given the time and the place, there's no way he could have married her legally, even if he didn't have a legal wife already. Hal and Ann also became parents to seven, with six living to adulthood, and Hal evidently wanted the best for both his families. While nothing is known for certain where she came from, or the identity of her parents, Ann's descendants always heard, and slave schedule records back it up, that Ann was "never
a slave."
Ann
was still with Sallie and Hal when they left Mississippi,
on their way to their last home, near Lodi, Marion County,
Texas, but a tad over the county line in Cass County. Ann
and Hal had one baby, Richard "Dick" Rand, when the "extended" family
left MS, and busy man Hal had added three to his children
with Sallie. Ann lived next door to Hal in 1870, but evidently
moved on between then and 1880.
Not surprisingly, Hal is buried with neither woman.
Here at RAND FAMILY TREE, we
plan to have lovely, easy to read, and ACCURATE information
about the Rand family, but we're still working on that. In
the meantime, if you'd like to know more about HAL and his
two ladies, take a look at information posted at the free Web
site, rootsweb.com. This particular file was created by the
Web clerk. It's somewhat outdated, but you'll find some pretty
good info there--30 years worth of research, actually. HAL & HIS
TWO WIVES.
Take a look at Hal's ancestors, compiled by our fearless leader, Pat Rand. William Rand, the Immigrant.
~ Martha Hix
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