A hardy and superior class of people penetrated the wilderness of Alabama. Settlements and towns sprang into existence everywhere. The City of Montgomery, which became the county seat in 1822, was built on the side of the Indian town Ikanatchati (Econachatee), which means red ground, and Towasa on a high red bluff known to Alibamu Indians as Chunnaanaauga Chatty. Hernando DeSoto and his troops, who passed near Montgomery in the autumn of 1540, were the first Europeans to visit this region. When the Alabama Lands were offered for sale in 1817, two groups of speculators made their initial payments. One group, a company of Georgians led by General John Scott, bought the area along the river bluff and called it "Alabama Town." Later, a second group, led by Andrew Dexter, bought the area bounded by present day Court, Ripley, Scott, and Jefferson Streets and named it "New Philadelphia." The Georgians abandoned the Alabama Town and built the town of East Alabama, in competition. A bitter rivalry between the two groups was finally terminated when the two towns were merged under the name Montgomery. Incorporated December 3, 1819, eleven days before Alabama was admitted into the Union, the city of Montgomery was named in honor of Major Richard Montgomery of Revolutionary War fame. My mother's ancestors were here in the 1820s plus my husband's ancestors began their migration into Alabama at the same time. Both of us had a grandpa Carter. Mine was Cecil Earl with a son named Billy and ironically we ended up with a president named James Earl who had a brother named Billy Carter from Georgia.  The Alabama Carters moved around, back and forth, into Georgia and South Carolina http://www.kathylorena.com/ http://www.kathyskorner.org