ARCHER ALEXANDER

FAMILY. For many of us, our most important treasures are the stories that come to us from our family. It doesn’t matter who we are or where we come from, its’ that history that is the most important piece of history, to each us. It tells us who we are today. Millions of families research their ancestors through online websites each year. As a professional genealogist, my experience in the past fifty years has taught me that the best way to overcome what family historians call “the brick wall” is by using primary documents when researching your ancestors. However, until Emancipation in 1865, the only documentation one sometimes had, of one’s black ancestors were the legal documents that the people who enslaved them made.

Archer Alexander (1806-1880) was a freedom seeker born near Lexington, in Rockbridge County Virginia. His mother was apparently enslaved by an Alexander family living there, because “so goes the mother, so goes the child” or in other words, by law, all babies born to an enslaved woman, are also property of her enslaver. In the years of research, I have not been able to document (to my own satisfaction) the names of Alexander’s mother or father. However, I do know that he was in the household of a James H. Alexander in 1829, whose wife Nancy McCluer had inherited two females, one with the name Louisa, when her father died in 1822. We also know that James and Nancy Alexander, migrated to Missouri in 1829, like thousands of other families at that time. In October of that year, they settled in the Township called Dardenne, on the prairie near the creek by the same name. Along the way, a journal of that journey, from Virginia to Missouri, and they passed through Lexington and Louisville Kentucky. An oral familly history, that was shared with me five years ago by his descendant Keith Winstead, was that a baby was left behind, in Louisville in 1829, named Wesley. Wesley is thought to be one of ten children that Archer and Louisa would have together during their lifetime.

Wesley Alexander (1829-1888) grew up, and lived his entire life in Louisville, and is buried there. He had married Patsy Frye, a daughter of the enslaved Jesse and Betsy Hopkins. We know that they had at least thirteen children, one of which was named Betsy Jane Alexander (1864-1964). who was also born enslaved. In 1888, young Betsy married James Montgomery Greathouse, and they would raise a large family as well. Their daughter Edith Edean Greathouse (1890-1971) would marry Herman Heaton Clay, both were from Louisville Kentucky, where they would raise their family as well. Their son Cassius Marcellus Clay (1912-1990) married Odessa Lee Grady in Louisville, where both of them would live their entire life. They had two sons, both born in Louisville, named Rahaman Clay, who still lives there, and Cassius Marcellus Clay (17 January 1942- 3 June 2016). In 1964, Cassius Marcellus Clay would change his name, saying

“Cassius Clay is a slave name. I didn’t choose it and I don’t want it. I am Muhammad Ali, a free name…”

Muhammad Ali

Archer Alexander is the Great-great-great grandfather of Muhammad Ali. Records show that Archer Alexander’s wife Louisa, had at least seven children still living with her in 1845. Their names and their values are given as follows: Eliza $325, Mary Ann $300, Archer $225, James $200, Alexander $175, Lucinda $150 and John $125. I have located descendants of many of those children, who are today scattered across the country from one coast to another. (See Louisville family learns about their ties) Archer Alexander’s grave is located at St. Peter’s United Church of Christ on Lucas and Hunt in St. Louis, Missouri, and is unmarked. However, it is listed as a site on the National Park Services National Underground Railroad, one of five such sites currently listed in St. Louis. All of his descendants do have a monument that shares their ancestor, located in Washington, D.C. in Lincoln Park. Archer Alexander is on the controversial Emancipation Memorial, a monument dedicated in 1879 to President Abraham Lincoln, by the formerly enslaved on the 11th anniversary of his assasination. This controversial monument, still shares the story of the freedom seeker and American hero named Archer Alexander, ancestor of Muhammad Ali.