Franklin County

Cedar Creek Furnace
First in Alabama
3 mi. west

  Erected 1815 by Joseph Heslip who used the iron to make utensils for early settlers. Iron was from surface brown ore smelted by charcoal fires.

Jackson's Military Road

  Built by Andrew Jackson, 1816-20. Shortened by 200 miles the route from Nashville to New Orleans. Provided much-needed road to Gulf for supply wagons and artillery. Built with U.S. funds and troops. Jackson's road served as model for 11 such roads built in 1820's. This road replaced narrow Indian trails. Lack of supply roads had hindered Jackson in Creek Indian War and campaigns against Spanish Florida, British at New Orleans.

Russellville

Incorporated on November 27, 1819, three weeks before Alabama achieved statehood, Russellville was platted around the intersection of two historic roads.
Edmund Pendleton Gaines began work on the road that would bear his name on December 26, 1807. Gaines’ Trace extended from Melton’s Bluff, at the head of the Elk River shoals, to Cotton Gin Port on the Tombigbee River in present-day Mississippi. Lawrence Street follows part of that route through town.
Work on a more direct road from Nashville to New Orleans began in 1817 under Andrew Jackson’s supervision. The route was called Jackson’s Military Road, and Jackson Avenue as it passes through Russellville.

• Newspapers on microfilm at ADAH
• Probate records on microfilm at ADAH
• Vital records on microfilm at ADAH
• County historical and genealogical societies
• Current county highway map from Department of Geography, The University of Alabama