Franklin, Alabama: First Town in Creek Country

Franklin, Alabama sits in Macon County, in country that was Creek Nation territory until the Treaty of Cusseta in eighteen thirty-two forced the removal of the Creek people from their homelands.

Within months of that removal, settlers arrived along the Old Federal Road, the rutted trace that ran from Washington all the way to New Orleans. Macon County was established by the Alabama legislature in December of eighteen thirty-two, named for Nathaniel Macon, a soldier and senator from North Carolina. Franklin grew up as one of the early settlements in the county, near Euphapee Creek.

It remains a small community today, but it is one of the older communities in this part of Alabama, a quiet reminder of how quickly settlers moved into Creek lands the moment the treaties were signed.