Historical Marker Program
Bridgeport
Vital Memphis-Charleston railroad, "backbone of Confederacy," spanned Tennessee River here. Bridge burned several times, 1862-63. General Mitchell (U.S. Flag), occupying Huntsville after Battle of Shiloh, seized Bridgeport in April 1862 and held it until August. Federals recaptured town in July 1863 as Rosecrans (U.S. Flag) took Chattanooga (upriver). As end of usable railway from Nashville, town became key base of operations in U.S. victory at Chickamauga and lifting siege of Chattanooga.
[Before 1965: U.S. Highway 72, Bridgeport]
Crow Town
One of the Five Lower Towns established by the Chickamauga Cherokees in 1782 under the leadership of Dragging Canoe. Territorial Governor William Blount reported to the Secretary of War in 1792 that: “Crow Town lies on the north side of the Tennessee [River], half a mile from the river, up Crow Creek, 30 miles below the Suck. [It] is the lowest town in the Cherokee Nation and contained 30 huts in 1790. The Creeks and Northward tribes cross [the river] here.”
All of the Five Lower Towns were on the extreme Cherokee frontier. Running Water was near Chattanooga and Nickajack was near Haletown, Tennessee. Long Island Town was twenty miles below the Suck, east of Bridgeport, Alabama. Lookout Mountain Town was near Trenton, Georgia.
Sponsored by the Jackson County Historical Association
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Crow Town
Crow Town encompassed an area of several miles by the early 1800s as increasing numbers of Cherokee families settled here. With the creation of Jackson County in 1819, many of the Cherokees moved to the south side of the river – some 19th-century maps placed Crow Town near the southeast end of Snodgrass Bridge which takes Highway 117 across the Tennessee River east of Stevenson. The 1782 site of Crow Town, one-half mile from the confluence of Crow Creek and the original channel of the Tennessee River, was flooded with the closing of the spillway gates at Guntersville Dam in 1939.
Sponsored by the Jackson County Historical Association
[2008: Hwy 72 over Crow Creek, Stevenson]
Decatur County
1821-1825
Created by an Act of the Legislature on December 7, 1821, Decatur County was comprised of portions of Madison and Jackson Counties. "Old Woodville," two miles north along County Highway 7, was designated as the County Seat. An 1823-‘24 completed survey revealed that it did not contain the constitutionally required number of square miles. The county was abolished by an Act of the Legislature on December 28, 1825, and the territory was returned to Madison and Jackson Counties.
[1991: U.S. Hwy 72]
Robert Thomas Scott, 1800-1863
Planter, tavern operator, newspaper editor, legislator, and land developer, he sought in vain to have the Jackson County Seat moved from Bellefront to the settlement that bore his name. After his death in 1863, his widow reached an agreement in 1868 with the county government whereby the site for the courthouse and jail was deeded to Jackson County on condition that Scottsboro become the county seat.
Incorporated by the state legislature on January 20, 1870, the town became an important commercial center and shipping point on the Memphis and Charleston Railroad.
Sequoyah
1760-1843. Inventor of system of characters representing syllables in Cherokee language. This give them the only written Indian language. Adopted here at Sauta in 1822, Cherokees used new written language to print the Bible, hymns and a newspaper named Cherokee Phoenix.
[Before 1965: U.S. Hwy 72, 5 mi. west of Scottsboro]
Other Jackson County pages:
Back to Historical Marker Index
http://www.archives.alabama.gov/aha/markers/jackson.html
Updated: August 11, 2009
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