Re: Melton's Bluff

On Friday, June 5, 2015 at 11:01:47 AM UTC-4, [email protected] wrote:
> On Thursday, November 9, 2000 at 9:12:39 PM UTC-5, [email protected] wrote: 
> > Wow, Rich! This is great. Thanks for posting it. I love reading about 
> > the Valley history. 
> > 
> > Donna 
> > 
> > "Rich" <[email protected]> wrote: 
> > 
> > >From: "Ron Hammon" <[email protected]> 
> > >Subject: Melton's Bluff 
> > >Date: Tuesday, November 07, 2000 9:10 PM 
> > > 
> > >I hope you don't mind that I'm posting this to hsv.general because it 
> > >has local relevance and someone can now find this on Dejanews. 
> > > 
> > >snip 
> > > 
> > >Richard Melton wrote: 
> > > 
> > >> Anyway, I would be most interested (and I am sure the rest of our clan 
> > >> would be also) to hear what you know about the (in)famous John Melton 
> > >> and welcome your response if you have the time. 
> > > 
> > >snip 
> > > 
> > >John Melton was a Door Irishman who, a short while after being in this 
> > >country, abandoned the whites back east in the late 1700's and went into 
> > >Cherokee land and took a Cherokee "wife". He gathered a band of her 
> > >brothers and friends and they went west to Melton's Bluff. This was an 
> > >excellent ambush site for raiding flatboats when settlers and explorers 
> > >later came down the Cherokee (Tennessee) River. He amassed a fortune 
> > >raiding flatboats until the area slowly became more populated and Fort 
> > >Henry (I think it was Henry) was built practically across the river to 
> > >ensure the safety of travelers. Except for a string of temporary, 
> > >Spanish forts in Mobile Bay, Melton's Bluff was the first europeon 
> > >settlement in Alabama. 
> > > 
> > >Melton's Bluff was on the south bank of the river just upstream of where 
> > >Elk River enters on the north. (The fort was actually on Elk River, 
> > >since Melton owned the entire south bank). The river here starts a 
> > >quick drop down to the town of Muscle Shoals. This cut through the rock 
> > >created a broad expanse of very shallow water with innumberable sharp 
> > >rocks that formed an effective barrier to river travel. This area, from 
> > >Elk River to, what is now the town of Muscle Shoals [sic] was called 
> > >Muscle [Mussel?] Shoals. This remained a barrier to boat travel, even 
> > >flatboats, until the Corp of Engineers built the first dams and locks. 
> > >The cut also forms an impressive, vertical, rock bluff. Due to the 
> > >curve of the river, from this inside bluff, one could see for miles 
> > >either way along the river. I am guessing that the early travelers tied 
> > >up before entering the rapids and were easy prey. 
> > > 
> > >This 1795 map shows the Shoals and location of the fort. 
> > >http://scarlett.libs.uga.edu/darchive/hargrett/maps/1795r7.jpg 
> > > 
> > >I'll have to find the maps showing Melton's Bluff. One has no 
> > >Huntsville yet. 
> > > 
> > >An early business in the area was trucking freight around the Shoals by 
> > >mule. This was later replaced by the very first, narrow-gage, railroad 
> > >West of Georgia, terminating at "The Bluff". 
> > > 
> > >Most people know of the Battle of Horseshoe Bend and Jackson's success 
> > >over the Muskogee (Creek) after the massacre at Fort Mims. Some know 
> > >that Indians with Jackson did all of the heaviest fighting, not the 
> > >whites. Those Indians were Cherokee supplied by "Moses" Melton from 
> > >Melton's Bluff. Melton moved away from the Bluff shortly afterward, 
> > >accross the river, into Limestone County because he was afraid of 
> > >reprisals from the Creek. Melton's Cherokee friends then traded the 
> > >land West of the Cherokee Nation (around Huntsville) and North of the 
> > >river to the United States, excepting a plot of land belonging to Moses 
> > >Melton in what is now Limestone County, for a sum of cash, an annuity, 
> > >and, the new invention, a cotton gin. This was the first gin west of 
> > >the Applachian Mountains. This treaty was the "Cotton Gin Treaty". 
> > >Melton's Indian friends fled to Oklahoma a few years early, however, 
> > >because the land transfered actually belonged to the Choctaw and the 
> > >Cherokee Nation was not consulted, even though the treaty reads as if 
> > >the Nation made the treaty. 
> > > 
> > >The first road in Lawrence County was a Cherokee toll road for taking 
> > >cotton from the Bluff to Tupelo, Mississippi. Long before 1819, when 
> > >Alabama was made a state, before the Cherokee were removed, Melton's 
> > >Bluff had became a regular stop for travelers and Melton himself had an 
> > >Inn/Saloon/Bawdy House there. Since the area was so well known, 
> > >Lawrence County was actually chartered as a county a few months BEFORE 
> > >the State of Alabama. When John Melton left the Bluff, he sold out 
> > >to... ANDREW JACKSON! Jackson tried to make a go of the young town even 
> > >after the county seat was made the brand-new town of Moulton. Jackson 
> > >changed the name to Marathon. By the Civil War, Melton's Bluff no 
> > >longer even appears on maps. 
> > > 
> > >I've seen a 1910's article in the old Morgan County newsrag about 
> > >telephone wires all the way to "Milton's Bluff". There is a Melton's 
> > >Bluff river navigation light and a Melton's Bluff road. Wheeler Dam 
> > >flooded the site by a rumored 20'. I have pre-impoundment maps and, if 
> > >the flooded rumor is true, Melton's Bluff was on a narrow ledge which is 
> > >underwater. 
> > > 
> > >The County park is on an adjacent bluff to the west of the real one.
> Is there a cemetery associated with Melton's Bluff? Did the TVA move a cemetery from the area? Robert