A History of Early Settlement: Madison County before Statehood, 1808-1819 (review)

T H E A L A B A M A R E V I E W 296 A History of Early Settlement: Madison County before Statehood, 1808–1819. Edited by Jacquelyn Procter Reeves. Huntsville: The Huntsville-Madison County Historical Society, 2008. $10.00. The Huntsville Historical Review, Special Issue, 2008. County history is an important part of the literature that helps us better understand Alabama’s past. A History of Early Settlement fills an important void in the historical record of one of the state’s most important counties. Sponsored by the Huntsville Historical Society and the Madison County Commission, it was written by eight local “volunteer historians” to celebrate the two-hundredth birthday of Madison County on December 13, 2008. The first article, “Alabama Fever,” describes the arrival of the first settlers to this part of the “Old Southwest” in 1804. After the 1805 treaty with the Chickasaws, large groups of extended families, friends, and neighbors moved together to begin a new life on this fertile land. Wagons carried people, food, and rails for animal pens. Cows were tied to the back of wagons, and chickens were kept in small wooden cages. Although the first land sales were in Nashville, a federal land office opened in Huntsville in 1812. In 1810, there were 3,745 whites and 954 slaves living in Madison County. The first settlements were at Hazel Green, Meridianville, Hunt’s Spring, Brownsboro, Indian Creek, Mountain Forks of the Flint, and the Three Forks of the Flint. The price of land was between two and twenty dollars an acre. Other topics in this article include the founding of Huntsville, “Captain Slick’s militia,” early churches, and the Great Migration after the Creek War. There is a map showing the first outline of Madison County and an illustration of the first courthouse (1811–1837). The second article, “Indian Creek and Western Madison County,” has nine maps showing the location of the first families in Madison County. This includes David Capshaw (Capshaw Mountain and town), Elisha Rainbolt (Rainbow Mountain), William Martin (Martin Road), William Patton (Patton Road), William Slaughter (Slaughter Road), William Weeden (Weeden Mountain), and Andrew Wall (Wall-Triana Road). We learn that Triana is the nation’s only town named for the sailor on Columbus’s ship who first saw land in the New World. Ford’s Chapel (1808) is the oldest Methodist church in the state. The early work of Cumberland Presbyterian preacher Robert Donnell and the land surveys of Thomas Freeman and John Coffee are also discussed. O C T O B E R 2 0 1 0 297 “The Big Spring and John Hunt” focuses on the founding of Huntsville by LeRoy Pope in 1809. The background and accomplishments of John Hunt, Clement Comer Clay, and John W. Walker are discussed in this third chapter. The founding of New Market along the Flint River in northern Madison County is the topic of the fourth article. The contributions of such early settlers as Isaac Criner and Samuel Townsend, who had eight plantations with 7,560 acres and 190 slaves, are discussed. Ditto’s Landing, established in 1810 in the Chickasaw Old Fields along the Tennessee River, is the subject of the fifth article. In addition to the ferry, flatboats were built near the river. The twenty-foot-wide Madison Turnpike (1823), which ran from Meridianville through Huntsville to Ditto’s Landing, was the main road connecting Madison County to the Tennessee River. The name was later changed to Whitesburg Pike to honor James White. Many well-known Huntsville place-names are found in this chapter, including Garth Road (William Garth), Drake Avenue (John Drake), Hobbs Island (John Hobbs), the Burritt Museum (Dr. William Burritt), and Jones Valley (Carl T. Jones). The founding of Hazel Green and Meridianville are the subjects of the sixth article. Located four miles from Tennessee, Hazel Green (1809) was probably named for the wife of Robert Irwin, who operated a general merchandise store along the Huntsville–Nashville Road. Charles Cabaniss Jr. built the state’s first cotton thread spinning mill in1810 along the Flint River. Ten families of Revolutionary War veterans lived near Hazel Green. Meridianville is located six miles...