Marshall County, AL
History
An ancient town, Tali, in the Marshall County area was visited by Desoto’s expedition on July 10, 1540. It was located on McKee’s Island in the Tennessee River near present day Guntersville.Cherokees settled along the Creek Path and the Tennessee River as early as 1784. Near the present village of Red Hill, on the west bank of Brown Creek there was a Cherokee town used about 1790 by the head man of the tribe, Richard Brown, for whom the town was named.
Present-day Marshall County was created by the Alabama legislature on January 9, 1836, from Cherokee land acquired in the 1835 Treaty of New Echota. The county was named in honor of John Marshall, chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1801 to 1835. Most early county settlers came from Tennessee, Virginia, and the Carolinas.