Alexander Chalmers Lanier (1778-1820)

He was born at Washington, Beaufort Co., North Carolina. He became Court Clerk of the County Courts of Southampton County, Virginia, before moving to Bourbon County, Kentucky in about 1800. Seven years later (1807), he moved his family to Eaton in Preble Co., Ohio, where he served as Major in the Ohio Militia during the War of 1812. In 1817, he settled with his family at Madison, Indiana, where he built the Lanier-Schofield House, half of which he operated as a tavern. He co-founded the Freemason's Grand Lodge of Indiana and died at Lancaster, Kentucky. In 1797, at Southampton, he married Drusilla Cleaves Doughty, and they were the parents of one son, James, who built the Lanier Mansion at Madison before removing to New York City.