Huntsville, Aa., shire town of Madison co. About 180 miles N. by W. from Montgomery, and 150 N. by E. from Tuscaloosa. It is a neat and thriving place, situated in the northern part of the state, about 10 miles N. of the Tennessee River, and 30 miles from the railroad at Decatur, which runs to Tuscumbia. It is principally built of brick, and many of the houses are elegant and costly. Among the public buildings, it contains a court house of Grecian architecture, which cost $45,000; a banking house of hewn stone, with an Ionic portico, built at a cost of $80,000; a handsome market house; a U. S. land office; an academy; and several churches. The streets are McAdamized, and kept remarkably clean. The town is abundantly supplied with pure and cool water from a spring, which breaks out at the foot of a rock with force sufficient to drive a forcing pump for elevating and distributing it to all the dwellings. A fine McAdamized road, commencing 4 miles N. of the town, passes through it, and extends to the Tennessee River.
John Hayward, Gazetteer of the United States of America… (Philadelphia: James L. Gihon, 1854), 408.