PATRON + [film & old pictures] Can you believe the Masonic building where the Marquis de Lafayette was hosted in 1825 is still standing?

Wonderful

A few little known facts about Claiborne. Lafayette was met at the landing and transported in a coach owned by Lyman Gibbons who hosted the General. The coach was driven by 12 year old Frank Wood, later Capt. Frank M. Wood, CSA, to the Gibbons’ home. Lafayette requested the first dance be with the “widow Wood”, nee Charity Ann Ruffin, mother of young Frank. Mrs. Ann Mosely Walker of Monroeville is now in possession of a silk stole worn by her ancestor for the occasion. The old Sowell Store was purchased by brothers, Simon Rothschild and Samson Rothschild. Samson removed to Selma and his son, John, moved to New York. John’s daughter, Dorothy Rothschild, known to the world as Dorothy Parker wrote the screenplay for “A Star Is Born”. Simon Rothschild’s son, Theophilus, had several children by a mulatto woman named Mary Gaillard. One of these children was called Bulee but is known to the world as Slim Gaillard, a noted jazz musician of the 40s, and whose daughter, Janis, married the soul legend, Marvin Gaye.
It should be noted that the celebration for Lafayette did not occur at the Dellet home depicted in photographs. It was held at the Gibbons home which burned 8 years post Lafayette. The current home was constructed in 1833.

Love the Alabama history

Claiborne was also later home to NC State Senator and Physician William Roger Hall who married Anna Laspeyre Hall and brought their family to AL after 1850. He and his wife died there in 1862 and 1861 respectively. I descend from them via Catherine Neal Hall Gause, Johnnie Augusta Gause Dawes, and Kathryn Neal Dawes TX branches and am still searching for their grave sites there locally.