Most
early settlers of the Tennessee Valley came from the colonies in Virginia or North
Carolina. Nearly
all of these settlements were located along
streams or rivers.
In 1791 Knoxville became the capitol of the Territory South of the Ohio.
Chattanooga was
originally called Ross’ Landing. Ross’ Landing was a Indian trading post
for many years
and was not incorporated as the City of
Chattanooga until the removal of the Cherokee Indians in 1838.
One of the first
settlements in North Alabama was found along the Tennessee River. Fort Deposit was
located along the northern bank of the river
approximately eight miles north of the present location of
Guntersville. General Jackson used this
settlement as a supply base at the beginning of the Creek Indian
War in 1813. Fort Deposit was situated
in a saddle between two high bluffs. This allowed easy access to the
river from a spot that could be easily
defended.
Ditto Landing in Madison
County, Alabama was a landing for flatboats and keelboats during the early
1800’s. The settlement was named
for John Ditto, who is thought to have been the first white settler in
Madison County around 1804. Flower was
brought here from other parts of the river in such quantity that t
he U.S. government made Ditto landing a
“Port of Entry”. U.S. inspectors were sent to the landing where
all flour for sale was inspected, graded, and
stamped.
In 1820
President Monroe reserved a site for a town to be called Decatur in honor of Commodore
Decatur
of the U.S. Navy. The Decatur Land
Company was formed the same year, however the site remained a part
of the Cherokee Reservation
until1826. Decatur, Alabama lies on the south bank of the Tennessee River,
and was a strategic point for commercial
navigation because of its proximity near the head of the Muscle
Shoals. The Tuscumbia, Cortland &
Decatur railway was completed in 1834. Goods were transferred too
and from steamboats here and shipped by rail
around Muscle Shoals.
Florence, Alabama was
surveyed in 1818 by the Italian Engineer Ferdinand Sannona for the Cypress Land
Company. For his work the young engineer
was allowed to name the city, which h called Florence for his home
in Italy. The Cypress Land Company
purchased the land from the government because of its proximity near
the foot of the Muscle Shoals. The
company thought that at this location must “in the natural course of things,
spring up one of the largest commercial towns
in the interior of the southwestern section of the Union.”
Florence would become the head of navigation
for the lower Tennessee, although it would never reach the size
anticipated by its founders.
Tuscumbia, Alabama was
first settled by whites in 1815 at the site of a Cherokee village destroyed by
General James Robertson in 1787. The
town was incorporated as Ococoposa in 1820. The name was changed
to Big Spring in 1821. Finally the town
was named Tuscumbia in 1822 in honor of Chief Taski Ambi who sold
the land at the time of its settlement.
In 1831 the first railroad west of the Allegheny Mountains was built in
Tuscumbia, it ran two miles to the Tennessee
River.
Sheffield, Alabama was
settled as a trading post by the French in 1780. The city was founded in 1784.
Andrew Jackson said that Sheffield would be a
ideal location for a national capitol.
Paducah, Kentucky lies at the confluence of the Tennessee and Ohio Rivers, twelve miles
downstream of
the mouth of the Cumberland River. This
area was settled by the Indians and known as Pekin. The U.S.
government gave General George Rogers Clark a
track of land for his services which included this area. His
youngest son, General William Clark, changed
the name to Paducah in 1827 in Honor of the Indian Chief
Paducah whose favorite camping ground was
located here.
River Trade
Men awaiting the arrival of the
steamer Gorge near Chattanooga.
Image from National Archives and Records Administation
In 1807 the steamer Clermont demonstrated the practicability of steam navigation on inland
waters when
it traveled up the Hudson River. During
1811 and 1812 the Steamer New Orleans carried goods up and
down the Mississippi River. These
vessels deep draft made their navigation on the Tennessee unpractical
and dangerous. The steamer Washington
was built in 1816 and designed with a shallow draft, bringing steam
travel on the Tennessee closer to reality.
It is thought
that the first steamboat to travel as far up the Tennessee as the Muscle Shoals reached
Florence in 1821. In February 1822 the
Rocket arrived at Florence and began regular trips to Trinity, near
the mouth of the Ohio.
The first steamboat to
pass over the Muscle Shoals and reach Knoxville was the Atlas in 1828. By 1835
steamboats traveled regularly from Knoxville,
Tennessee to Decatur, Alabama when water was high.
In 1836
a canal was built around the Muscle Shoals by the State of Alabama with Federal
aid. The canal
was not very successful and by the mid
1800’s the railroads began to take traffic away from the rivers.
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