Limestone County was created by an act of the Alabama Territorial General Assembly February 6, 1818. It was formed from land comprising of Elk County, previously a part of the Mississippi Territory. The county is named for Limestone Creek, which flows through it and has a bed made of hard Limestone. Encompassing approximately 607 square miles, Limestone is the third smallest county in the state. It lies west of Madison County, north of Morgan and Lawrence counties, east of Lauderdale county and south of the Tennessee state line. Limestone County consists of fertile agricultural land, scenic hills and waterways that include the Elk River running through the western side, and the Tennessee River on the south.

After the Cherokee Land Cession in 1806, settlers began moving into the area now known as Limestone County. The Cherokee cession included much of Limestone County, land that was also claimed by the Chickasaw Tribe. Unaware that they were venturing into Chickasaw territory, white settlers were moving west of the Congressional Reservation Line by 1808, leading to clashes between settlers, Indians and soldiers. These settlers became known as The Intruders and suffered both at the hands of the native tribe and the U.S. Government.

The Intruders built cabins, planted crops and settled in during the winter of 1808-1809. The Chickasaws, known for their fierce fighting ability, did not look kindly upon having settlers moving onto their land and often made raids on unsuspecting residents. The Chickasaws obtained support from the U.S. government in forcing the settlers out of their territory. The soldiers dealt harshly with the settlers by destroying their cabins and crops. In 1809, soldiers stationed at Ft. Hampton removed 166 settlers from the Chickasaw territory, 93 of which were from the Simms Settlement. Some of these families included widows with children who fled to neighboring Giles County, Tenn., and Madison County, Ala. Land entries were made in northeast Limestone County as early as 1809; between 1809 and 1816, 11,001 acres of land were entered in the county.

In September 1816, after many years of fending off attacks from the Chickasaws and removal by the government, the settlers living west of the Congressional Reservation Line were finally allowed to stay. The Chickasaw Nation ceded to the United States all rights and titles to the lands on the north side of the Tennessee River, as well as some land on the south side. Settlers flocked to the Huntsville land office to buy the land they had cleared and on which they had established homes. By 1820, there were 10,069 people living in the county, 2,919 of whom were slaves and 33 of them, free persons of color. The population continued to increase due to the fertile soil that was conducive to growing cotton and other crops. By 1860, the population had increased to 15,306. Of that number, there were 7,215 whites and 8,085 slaves. The number of free persons of color had decreased to six.

In November 1819, Reuben Tillman, Thomas Redus, Jeremiah Tucker, Robert Pollock and Samuel Hundley were elected to serve as the first county commissioners, and in 1820, the first of four county courthouses were erected.

In May 1819, members were elected to the state constitutional convention. They were Nicholas Davis, Thomas Bibb, and Beverly Hughes. The same year William Wyatt Bibb was elected as governor of Alabama. Davis was elected as a state representative, and William R. King and John W. Walker were elected to the U.S. Senate.

The city of Athens, incorporated Nov. 18, 1818, became the county seat in 1819, beating out Cambridge, in the southeastern part of the county, and English’s Spring, in modern-day Tanner. Other towns once or currently located in Limestone County include:

• Mooresville, incorporated Nov. 16, 1818, is the oldest town in Limestone County. Tradition says the first settler was William Moore. Today, visitors to historic Mooresville find beautiful, well-maintained, antebellum homes.

• Cotton Port, located near the point that Limestone Creek flows into the Tennessee River, was incorporated Jan. 29, 1829, and flourished for a time.

• Bridgewater, another small town located 15 miles south of Elkton, Tenn., and 10 miles above Ft. Hampton at Simms Landing, was also a flourishing town in the early history of the county.

• Belle Mina grew around Thomas Bibb’s home, Belle Manor, built in 1826, and the railroad depot that was located there after the residence of nearby Mooresville opposed having the railroad come so close to their homes and businesses.

• Elkmont, named for the elk that flourished on the “mount” on which it sat, began to flourish with the completion of the Tennessee and Alabama Central Railroad in 1859. The name of the Fort Hampton post office, established in 1859, was changed to Elkmont in 1866 and Elkmont was incorporated on March 28, 1873.

• Ardmore sprang up as the village of Austin on the Alabama-Tennessee state line after the Louisville and Nashville Railroad began building a direct line between Nashville and Decatur in 1911. When the first railroad opened in Austin in 1914, the railroad named it Ardmore and the town changed its name to follow suit. The town was incorporated in 1922.

The first settlers in Limestone County were mostly Presbyterian, Baptist, Methodist and Christian Church members. Later, the Episcopalians Catholics and Lutherans established churches in the county. When German settlers moved into the county in the late 1800s, they established St. Paul Lutheran Church, which is now home to Sand Springs Baptist Church. Located in the Germantown community near Thach is the Germantown Cemetery where tombstone inscriptions attest to their Germanic background. Today many descendants of these settlers continue to call Limestone County home.