As to who was the first white man to settle in Madison county is yet a mooted question, but circumstances lead to the belief that "Old Man Ditto" was living among the Indians as a trader at "Ditto's Landing," (Cherokee-Old-Fields or Whitesburg) some years before Huntsville was located.

That John Hunt was the first white man to build his hut on the banks of the "Big Spring," is historically settled. Hunt's cabin was situated on the slope of the bluff overlooking the spring, at the point which is now the southwest corner of the intersection of Bank street and Oak avenue, on the property occupied by the residence of Mr. Frank Murphy. Incidents and circumstances attending Hunt's journey to the Big Spring confirm the belief that there were white settlers in Madison county, north of Huntsville, before the arrival of Hunt.

Judge Taylor, in his letters dealing with early life in Madison county, tells us that Joseph and Isaac Criner, accompanied by Stephen McBroom, explored the northern part of the county in 1804 and built a hut on the banks of a stream, which is now known as Mountain Fork of Flint river. Isaac Criner was personally known to Judge Taylor, and in his letters he gives us Mr. Criner's narrative of the events of those early days in his own words. In substance Mr. Criner says: In the early part of 1805 he and Joseph, his brother, came to Mountain Fork and built a cabin for Joseph's family, then one for himself. Shortly after the erection of these cabins, John Hunt and a man named Bean came to their cabins and spent the night, continuing their journey the next morning.

Hunt and Bean came from the north of what is now New Market, along a trail, which is now the Winchester, Tennessee, road. They had heard of the "Big Spring,'" and of the abundance of big game in its vicinity. In a few weeks Bean returned and stated that he was going back to what is now Bean creek, near Salem, Tennessee, but that Hunt was going to locate at the "Big Spring," and would return and bring his family later. Mr. Criner also tells us that in 1805 several families came into the county from north of New Market, along the same course traversed by Hunt; among whom were the Walkers, Davises, McBrooms and Reeses.

These early settlers got word back to their former friends and neighbors of the unusual fertility of the soil, the beauty of the country, and of the wonderful "Big Spring," and in 1806, large numbers of home-scekers began to come into the county from Middle and East Tennessee, and Georgia. These pioneers were of the types usually found on unsettled frontiers, "the advance guard of civilization," known as "squatters." They were a very thrifty lot, and at the Government land sales in 1809 many were able to buy the tracts upon which they had "squatted" and made their homes. As a whole they were an honest, law-abiding people, modest in their desires and customs, living peaceably without law or government for some years.

Between the years 1805 to 1809 wealthy and cultured slave owners came into the county in large numbers from North Carolina, Georgia and Virginia. Soon this class outnumbered the pioneers; these later settlers bought large tracts of land at the sales in 1809. In coming into the county, the settlers from North Carolina and Virginia moved along the then western boarder of civilized customs and cultivated lands into West Georgia and Middle Tennessee, till they reached the Tennessee river, which they crossed near the Georgia line.

[Source: Early History of Huntsville, Alabama 1804-1870, By Edward Chambers Betts - Transcribed by C. Anthony]

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