Huntsville Area

A SHORT HISTORY

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The Early History of Huntsville and Madison County

The Early History of Madison County

In the summer and fall of 1827, Thomas Cunningham, John J. Coulter and Henry King of Lauderdale County, Alabama made a prospecting expedition into the what is now known as the Kings River valley. Henry King died (of unknown causes) and was buried on the bank of the river that now bears his name, Kings River. His death was the first recorded death of a non-native in the county. Cunningham and Coulter returned to Alabama.

Two years later in the fall of 1829, another expedition from Alabama made its way into the Kings River valley once again with the purpose of settling in the new territory. Members of this group included William King, Benjamin F. King (probably relatives), Charles Burney, Turner Hamblet, Thomas Rogers, Lemuel Rogers, and William Adair. It appears that all of these settlers were part of the King family. During the time between the two Alabama expeditions, another settler, Leonard Koker, had arrived in 1828 with a large herd of cattle and had already cleared three acres of land.

The Kings would settle near what is now known as Lower Camp Ground, Turner Hamblin would purchase the land of Leonard Koker and the Burney's would eventually settle on the mountain south of present day Kingston, today known as Burney Mountain. William Henderson Burney, son of Charles and Mary King Burney, is the first known birth of a non-native in the county.

The Rogers family settled on what is today the present site of the town of Kingston. Other early settlers were Eli Sweden, (Sweden Creek) on which it is believed the first school in Madison County was erected; John F. King, a Cumberland Presbyterian minister who conducted the first school; On September 30, 1836, the First General Assembly of the State of Arkansas created Madison County out of territory taken from Washington County. Madison County became the thirty-sixth county created by the General Assembly and was named for President James Madison. Actually, Madison County was named in honor of Madison County, Alabama, home of many of the earlier settlers.

The Early History of Huntsville

The southern part of the town of Huntsville was originally settled by George Sanders, who built the first house in Huntsville. The adjoining tract of land, just north of the Sanders tract, was owned by Evan S. Polk. George Sanders brother John Sanders, was eager to have the land subdivided into lots and sold and in 1839, 76 lots were platted by county surveyor, Thomas McCuiston.

The main roads in the town were Missouri Street, which ran north and south and Harris Street in the center, both which were forty feet wide. The public square was bound by Short Street on the west, Harris St. on the east, War Eagle on the north and Main Street on the south. Other original streets included Polk Alley and Long Alley which ran parallel to Short Street; Wilson's Alley which ran north and south and was parallel to Missouri St.; and Swamp Alley which ran parallel with War Eagle. Between Swamp Alley and War Eagle was a public spring and several acres which composed the town commons. The court house stood in the center of the public square and was built in 1837.

Portion of an 1855 Arkansas Map

As many of the earlier settlers were from the Huntsville, Madison County, Alabama area, Huntsville, was chosen as the name. That community was named for John Hunt, its founder. At this time, the only post office in the northern part of the county was located three miles south of Huntsville on War Eagle, with one John Buchanan serving as postmaster. The post office was on the post road which connected Carrolton with Fayetteville (see map above). Mr. Buchanan moved his post office to Huntsville along with his home. Mr. Buchanan was an apparent admirer of Ambrose H. Sevier, one of the first U.S. Senators from Arkansas and wanted the post office name changed (and thus the town name) to Sevierville. The name was apparently used for a time and Huntsville became known as Sevierville but the locals seemed to like the original so on January 17, 1840, the post office was officially named Huntsville.

Town officials were elected off and on until and after the Civil War. After the war, local citizens did not take much interest in the town government. Huntsville would be officially incorporated by the county court on November 3, 1877 with a population of around 300.