Editing Courtland, Alabama (section)

==History==

A small creek named Big Nance Creek runs through the town.  The creek was named for a [[Cherokee]] chief who lived in the area when the first European settlers arrived.  The current town is reportedly located on the site of the Native American village.

Courtland began as a small settlement known as Ebenezer in the early 1800s. Its early settlers were wealthy planters mostly from [[Virginia]], [[Tennessee]], the [[Carolinas]] and [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]]. It was presently named for the federal courthouse and land office there. In 1818, a group known as the Courtland Land Company bought the land on which the town is now situated and subdivided it into lots.<ref name=kaetz>James P. Kaetz, "[http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-3469 Courtland]," ''Encyclopedia of Alabama'', 20 June 2013.</ref> The town was incorporated on December 13, 1819, by the [[Alabama Territory|Alabama territorial legislature]]<ref name="alabama-law-1823"/>

The early roads [[Gaines Trace]] and [[Byler Road]] went through town.<ref>{{cite web |title=Early Roads / One of the South's First Railroads 1832 |publisher=The Historical Marker Database |url=http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=29056 |accessdate=2012-04-26 |archive-date=2017-09-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170928005327/https://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=29056 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

One of the South's earliest railroads, the [[Tuscumbia, Courtland and Decatur Railroad]], was organized at Courtland in 1831, and chartered the following year.  The railroad's organizers routed the {{convert|50|mi|km|adj=on}} railroad to bypass the dangerous shoals along the [[Tennessee River]] to the north.  The railroad was absorbed by the [[Memphis and Charleston Railroad]] in the 1850s, and later became part of the [[Southern Railway (U.S.)|Southern Railway]].<ref name=kaetz />

In 1835, Courtland physician [[Jack Shackelford]] organized a volunteer military unit to fight in the [[Texas Revolution]].  Known as the "[[Red Rovers]]" for the color of their uniforms, the company was captured by Mexican forces at [[Battle of Coleto|Coleto]] in March 1836, and most of its men were killed in the [[Goliad massacre]]. Shackelford was among the few survivors.<ref>Alabama Historical Association, "The Red Rovers" historical marker on the Town Square in Courtland, 1964.</ref>

In 1944 and 1945, during [[World War II]], Courtland was home to the Courtland Army Airfield (Courtland AAF). It was dismantled after the war and given to the city of Courtland, which now operates it as [[Courtland Airport]].

===Courtland Historic District===
{{Main|Courtland Historic District}}

In the early 1990s, more than 100 buildings in Courtland were listed on the [[National Register of Historic Places]] as the Courtland Historic District.  Most of the buildings in the district date from the 1830s through the 1930s, and architectural styles include [[Federal architecture|Federal]], [[Italianate architecture|Italianate]], [[Victorian architecture|Victorian]], [[Colonial Revival]], and [[Neoclassical architecture|Neoclassical]].  The Town Square was part of the town's original 1818-1819 plan.  Many of the commercial buildings facing the square, especially along College Street and Tennessee Street, were built in the 1890s and early 1900s.  The train depot on the south side of the square, now a community center, was built in the late 1880s.  The Old Sherrod Hotel, located at the northwest corner of Tennessee Street and Alabama Street, was built around 1930, and provided housing for early [[Tennessee Valley Authority]] employees.<ref>Robert Gamble, "[https://npgallery.nps.gov/GetAsset/efff9624-0505-490d-a5dd-5c20d933273e/ Courtland Historic District]," National Register of Historic Places inventory form, 1991.</ref>

The [[John McMahon House]], a Federal-style home built around 1830, is listed individually on the [[National Register of Historic Places]].<ref>{{NRISref|version=2010a}}</ref><ref>{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20090321094715/http://www.preserveala.org/pdfs/AHC%20Historical%20Markers.pdf AHC Historical Markers]}} (PDF). Retrieved on 2008-04-03.</ref>  [[Rocky Hill Castle]] was a [[Slavery in the United States|forced-labor]] plantation whose architecturally renowned plantation house was demolished in 1961.<ref name="alcatalog">{{cite book | last =Gamble | first =Robert | year =1987 | title =The Alabama Catalog: A Guide to the Early Architecture of the State | page=253 | publisher =University of Alabama Press | location =University, AL | isbn =0-8173-0148-8 }}</ref><ref name="lostplan">{{cite book |title=Lost Plantations of the South |url=https://archive.org/details/lostplantationss00matr |url-access=limited |last=Matrana |first=Marc R. |year=2009 |publisher=University Press of Mississippi |location=Jackson, MS |isbn=978-1-57806-942-2 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/lostplantationss00matr/page/n330 112]–117 }}</ref>