John Gayle

John Gayle (September 11, 1792 – July 21, 1859) was the seventh governor of Alabama, a United States representative from Alabama, a justice of the Supreme Court of Alabama and a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Alabama, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama and the United States District Court for the Southern District of Alabama.

Education and career

Born on September 11, 1792, in Sumter County, South Carolina, Gayle pursued classical studies and graduated from South Carolina College (now the University of South Carolina) in 1813 and read law in 1818. He was admitted to the bar and entered private practice in St. Stephens, Alabama Territory (State of Alabama from December 14, 1819) starting in 1818.

Notable state court case

During his service as a judge, Gayle presided over the Petition for Freedom of Cornelius Sinclair, a young African American child who had been kidnapped and sold into slavery in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

Notable achievements as Governor

During Gayle's term as Governor of Alabama, the state bank was expanded, and the first railroad was completed in Alabama. The Bell Factory, the state's first textile mill, was incorporated in Madison County.

Congressional service

Gayle was elected as a Whig from Alabama's 1st congressional district to the United States House of Representatives of the 30th United States Congress, serving from March 4, 1847, to March 3, 1849. They had six children. In 1837, Gayle married Clarissa Stedman Peck at Gaston, Alabama. They had four children. Gayle died of ill health and natural causes on July 21, 1859, aged 66.

During his time on Alabama Supreme Court (1828–29), John Gayle constructed his family home in Greensboro, Alabama, then a part of Greene County, now part of Hale County. There Sarah gave birth to Amelia Gayle Gorgas. She was the wife of Gen. Josiah Gorgas, Chief of Ordnance of the Confederate States of America, mother of William Crawford Gorgas, 22nd United States Surgeon General who freed the Panama Canal Zone of yellow fever.