The first substantial white settlement in what is now Gadsden was a village called “Double Springs”.This was begun by a mixed American Indian and Caucasian settler named John Riley when he built his house near two springs in about 1825. His home became a stagecoach stop on the Huntsville-to-Rome Georgia route.

The home below was taken from its original site, near Lawrenceburg, Tennessee. Built by Tennessee pioneers around 1777, this building portrays the early mountain settlers way of life.

John Riley’s wife, Susannah Walker, was white and not Cherokee. John was the son of a white man, Samuel Riley and his Cherokee wife, Gu-lu-s-ti-yu daughter of Chief Doublehead. Riley died in the Cherokee Nation in Indian Territory about 1845. Susannah was still alive in 1851 and listed on the Drennen Roll with several of their children in Tahlequah District. She was still alive in 1857 when she received a US Bounty Land Warrant as a widow for her husbands service during the War of 1812 (1st Creek War).

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Their house changed hands to a couple named Gabriel and Asenath Hughes in 1840. Shortly thereafter, they began to purchase much of the land between Lookout Mountain, the Coosa River, and down to the mouth of Wills Creek. The Hughes brothers’ unrealized vision was to bring a proposed railroad from Savannah to Nashville through their holdings. Their land, plus that of John S. Moragne and Lewis L. Rhea, was the 120 acres on which the original survey of Gadsden was made.

Sale of Lots in Gadsden (Alabama Department of Archives and History)

Double Springs was transformed on July 4, 1845, when one Captain James Lafferty piloted the first steamboat to this area, aptly named the Coosa. Lafferty landed near the site of the later Memorial Bridge. The Hughes brothers offered to name the town “Lafferty’s Landing” in his honor, but Lafferty declined. Instead, the name “Gadsden” was chosen, in honor of Colonel James Gadsden of South Carolina, who later became prominent for the Gadsden Purchase. Gadsden was a part of Cherokee County, Alabama until Etowah County was formed.

Lafferty’s Landing in Gadsden today – A 1,000-foot boardwalk with benches, gazebos, & picnic areas lining the walk.

The county was formed in 1867, and Gadsden was soon after chosen as the county seat. Among the earlier settlers were the Turrentine, Walker, Hughes, McMichael, Lafferty, Lay, Sansom, Hollingsworth, Woodliff, and Moragne families. The courthouse was built in 1870, the jail in 1874. Daniel Turrentine, of Georgia, came in 1845, and built the first house on the land now embraced in the corporate limits. He was the first merchant and tavern-keeper.

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Gadsden, Courthouse Saturday afternoon in 1940, by John Vachon Photographer – Library of Congress

Gadsden, Courthouse Saturday afternoon in 1940, by John Vachon Photographer – Library of Congress

In the 19th century, Gadsden was the second most important center of commerce and industry, trailing only the seaport of Mobile. Gadsden was an important shipping center known for its riverboats. Gadsden is located on the west bank of the Coosa River, 5 miles east of Attalla, 2 1/2 miles east of Alabama City, 52 miles southwest of Rome, Georgia., 69 miles north of Birmingham, 92 miles south of Chattanooga, and 190 miles west of Atlanta, Georgia.

Coosa River Bridge in Gadsden, Alabama – The George F. Landegger Collection of Alabama Photographs in Carol M. Highsmith’s America, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.

Gadsden is situated on a plateau at the southern extremity of Lookout Mountain, with Sand Mountain to the west. Red Mountain to the south, and the Colvin Mountains to the east. It was incorporated by the legislature, March 9, 1871, and a new charter was granted by act of January 27, 1883, which with amendments. Around 1900, it had a city hall and jail, which cost $35,000; incinerator, $4,000; public library, costing $22,000, 6 school buildings, costing $121,000, 24 miles sanitary sewerage, costing $120,000, fire department, partly volunteer, partly paid, and equipped with 2 combination chemical and hose motor trucks; privately owned gas and electric light systems, 100 miles of improved streets with 2 1/2 miles paved at a cost of $95,000, 30 miles paved sidewalks, costing $110,000, municipally owned waterworks constructed in 1908 at a cost of $250,000, 16 miles of electric street car lines, established from 1886 to 1913. Its bonded indebtedness was $510,000 maturing from 1931 to 1945.

Crowd Christmas shopping on December 21, 1940 in Gadsden by photographer John Vachon – Library of Congress

Crowd Christmas shopping on December 21, 1940 in Gadsden by photographer John Vachon

(Library of Congress)

Crowd Christmas shopping on December 21, 1940 in Gadsden by photographer John Vachon – Library of Congress

Its banking institutions included the First National, Gadsden National, Alabama Bank & Trust Co. (State), Etowah Trust & Savings Bank (State), and the Gadsden Loan & Trust Co. (State).

Crowd Christmas shopping on December 21, 1940 in Gadsden by photographer John Vachon – Library of Congress

Crowd Christmas shopping on December 21, 1940 in Gadsden by photographer John Vachon – Library of Congress

Newspapers were the Times-News, an evening daily, except Sunday, established in 1867, the Evening Journal, an evening daily, except Sunday, established in 1900, both Democratic newspapers, and the Bulletin of the Alabama Educational Association, a quarterly established in 1913.

Christmas shopping on December 21, 1940 in Gadsden by photographer John Vachon – Library of Congress

Gadsden’s industries around 1900 included a car works, the Southern Lumber Co., 3 pipe works, stove and hollow-ware factory, an iron furnace, cooperage works, electric railway system, an ice factory, a brick kiln, an overalls factory, cotton ginneries, gristmill, 3 fertilizer plants, a flour mill, machine shop and carriage works, marble and stone works, concrete works, a steam laundry, a mattress and comfort manufactory, 3 warehouses, and 5 iron ore mines in the immediate vicinity.

 Company houses near cotton mill. Gadsden, Alabama December 1940 by photographer John Vachon (Library of Congress)

Vestibule of Baptist church during Sunday services. Hats belonging to steel and cotton mill workers. Gadsden, Alabama, Dec. 21, 1940 by photographer John Vachon (Library of Congress)

Its churches were the First Methodist, McTier Memorial Methodist Episcopal, South, First Baptist, Second Baptist, First Presbyterian, Cumberland Presbyterian, Christian, Episcopal, Catholic, and 8 negro churches. It also had a Masonic hall, an Odd Fellows hall, Knights of Pythias hall, and a T. M. C. A. building. There was also a Federal post office building.

U.S. Post Office (ca. 1915) Completed in 1910. Supervising Architect: James Knox Taylor First extension completed in 1915. Supervising Architect of first extension: Oscar Wenderoth Still in use by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama; the U.S. Circuit Court for the Northern District of Alabama met here until that court was abolished in 1912

Two photographs of Historic downtown Gadsden, Alabama by photographer Carolyn Highsmith 2010 (Library of Congress)

SOURCES

1. Acts, 1870-71, pp. 130-137;IArmes,
2. Story of coal and iron in Alabama (1910);
3. Northern Alabama (1888), pp. 137-140; and
4. Age-Herald, Birmingham, Ala., October 10, 1915
5. A study of the Origins of Gadsden – James Lawrence
6. Gadsden-Etowah Tourism

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