 After the death of John's father, John D. Terrell uprooted thence and moved with his family into Franklin County, Georgia, and after failed business ventures there, he moved with his family in ca.1814 into Marion County, Alabama, (then known as Tuscaloosa County) in what was then the Alabama Territory, where he built a plantation near the Military Ford along the Buttahatchee River, immediately south of present-day Hamilton, Ala. (formerly called Toll Gate), and seven miles north of Pikeville.In 1813, John Dabney Terrell Sr. had been given Power of Attorney to apply for a land warrant on behalf of himself and his siblings.