ORIGINS and MATURING

The 19th century – 1800 through 1899 – is the originating and maturing period of Huntsville and Madison County. To cover the history – particularly the technological evolution – of this area in this extended period, the information has been divided into the four segments: Early Times, King Cotton, Transportation and Utilities, and Maturing Times. To an extent, these are also time periods, but there is considerable overlapping.

EARLY TIMES

The area eventually containing Madison County was in the region called Ah-la-bama by the native Muscogee (also called Creek) Indians who occupied the lower portion of the region; in their language, Mvskoke, this was a phrase meaning, "We will rest here." There is little recorded as to the first exploration of this area – some historians believe this was by Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto in 1540. French maps from the late 17th century show a large traversing river looping south and then north around the area – later called the "Great Bend" – certainly indicating early French explorations (the town of Mobile was formed by the French River first appears on maps of the late 18th century; it is believed to have come from Tanasi, a Cherokee Indian village.

NATIVE AMERICANS

The area in North Alabama adjacent to the Tennessee River is commonly called the Tennessee Valley, herein simply "the Valley". The Cherokee Indians were the first well-identified inhabitants spread across the Valley, but in about 1650, they withdrew from the region to an area in the mountains to the northeast, reserving the flat portions of the Valley as a large hunting ground. Shawnee Indians then moved southward from around the Cumberland River and occupied land in the Valley. This led to many years of warfare between the Cherokees and intruding Shawnees. The Chickasaw Indians from the western portion of the Valley eventually teamed with the Cherokees, and by the early 1720s, the Shawnees had been driven northward into the Ohio River area. Then for almost half a century, the Tennessee Valley was without permanent occupancy.

In about 1765, some of the Chickasaws moved into an area near the Tennessee River in what is now the southern portion of Huntsville, and formed a large settlement. This was challenged by the Cherokees, and they attacked their former allies. In 1769, there was a major battle at the Chickasaw settlement; the Chickasaws won, but at such a great loss that they withdrew from the settlement. Thereafter, the area of the abandoned settlement was known as the Chickasaw Old Fields (a square with about three-mile sides); this became a benchmark for future divisions of the land.

Through the following three decades, both tribes claimed the land on both sides of the river, westward to the Buffalo River, and eastward to the great ridge dividing the waters of the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers. The United States recognized both claims.

As the overall territory developed, the Chickasaw nation became in debt to the White traders and merchants, and also needed funds for local improvements. In the Chickasaw Treaty, signed 23 July 1805, the land between the east boundary and a direct line running at about 45 degrees northwest from the Old Fields to the ridge near the main source of the Buffalo River was ceded to the United States. For this, the Chickasaw nation was paid $20,000, the debt of $2,000 was settled, and the Chickasaw king, Chinubbee Mingo, was to be paid an annual annuity of $100.

Similarly, in the Cherokee treaty of 7 January 1806, all their territory north of the Tennessee River and west of a line drawn from the upper part of the Chickasaw Old Fields northerly to the Elk River, was ceded to the United States. For this, the Cherokee nation was paid $10,000 and the Cherokee chief, known as Black Hawk, was to be paid an annual annuity of $100. In addition, a grist mill would be built in Cherokee country, and a machine for cleaning cotton (a hand-powered cotton gin) would be provided; these showed that many of the Cherokees had become farmers.

The triangular tract of country acquired by these two treaties became the original Madison County of 1808. For the next two decades, the Indians lived peacefully in the land adjacent to Madison County. Then, under the Indian Removal Act passed by Congress on 28 May 1830, Indians from five tribes in the southeastern United States, including the Cherokees and the Chickasaws, were forced to move to the Indian Territory (Oklahoma). The Cherokee people called this journey the "Trail of Tears."

Overall, the Cherokees were the most advanced of the native Indian nations across the Southeast. Even before the arrival of European explorers, their villages often contained full houses. As described later, Cherokee warriors joined Andrew Jackson and U.S. troops in defeating the Creek Indians in 1814. The Cherokees had a written language (a syllabary) developed by George Guess/Gist (Chief Sequoyah) between 1809 and 1824. By 1830, when forced from their homelands, most were literate in their own language – Holy Bible translations, other books, and newspapers were published using the syllabary.

THE LAND

Before 1800, there was confusion as to which State or Territory owned the land in the region containing the Great Bend of the Tennessee River. The first officially recorded exploration of the area by Americans was in 1777. North Carolina had given "bounty land" to its Revolutionary War veterans and, believing that the region was their territory, sent a group to examine land along the river up to what is now Muscle Shoals. The group, however, was driven out of the area by Chickasaw Indians who felt that they were losing land already agreed for them.

In 1780, a band of some 160 persons, led by John Donelson in 30 flat-bottom boats, came by the area without incident on the Tennessee River. They passed through the shoals, eventually joined the Cumberland River, and then went upstream to settle Nashborough (later named Nashville) in 1784. Earlier, Donelson and James Robertson had travelled overland from Watauga (the first settlement in what is now Northeastern Tennessee) to establish a stockade on the banks of the Cumberland River in 1779; Donelson then returned to Watauga and formed the pioneering party. At that time, the land around present-day Nashville was in North Carolina (it became Tennessee in 1796).

The Georgia Legislature declared the region that is now Alabama and Mississippi to be in their Territory in 1783. For the next two decades, speculators formed companies for dividing and selling this land. One such group, in what was later called the Great Yazoo Fraud, gained the blessing of the Georgia Legislature to pay the State $500,000 for over 21 million acres (approximately the size of England, Scotland, and Wales). The Tennessee Land Company, owned by this group, started selling thousands of acres in this area to buyers who had...