Unincorporated community in Alabama, United States
Larkinsville is a historic village and populated place in Jackson County, Alabama, United States. Founded in 1828 by David Larkin,[1] it was incorporated into the nearby City of Scottsboro in the late 1960s.[2] In 1895, Larkinsville had a population of 216.[3] As late as 1940, the population was 320 according to the U.S. Census.[4] The historic Blue Spring Cemetery is located one mile southwest of the old village center.
History
David Larkin, third son born to a family of pioneers in Tennessee, established a trading post at Larkin's Landing on the Tennessee River near Goosepond Island shortly after Alabama gained statehood in 1819.[5] In the 1820s, he established a plantation of 32,000 acres[6] two miles west of present-day Scottsboro, and the village of Larkinsville developed around it. A post office was established in 1830, with David Larkin as postmaster, and Larkinsville became the most populous town in Jackson County up until the Civil War.[7] The first overland route through Larkinsville, now known as the Old Stage Road or County Road 30[8] ran from Huntland, Tennessee, across Cumberland Mountain and ended at Larkin's Landing. In 1850 the Memphis and Charleston railroad extended its line through Jackson County; David Larkin, as a railroad commissioner, established a station at Larkinsville.[9]
In the Civil War, Company K, the Larkinsville Guards, was organized in Larkinsville and served with the 4th Alabama Regiment under Captain A.C. Murray.[10] The war devastated Larkinsville, as it did most of North Alabama. On June 30, 1862, shortly after the fall of Huntsville, the Tenth Wisconsin regiment occupied Larkinsville.[11] As a stop along the strategically important railroad, Larkinsville would be occupied by Union forces for the remainder of the war, including the 13th Wisconsin,[12] the 10th Iowa,[13] the 116th Illinois,[14] and the 101st U.S. Colored Regiment.[15]
The postwar establishment of the county seat at Scottsboro began a gradual movement of people and business away from Larkinsville.[16] The railroad kept the village alive into the 1930s, but Alabama State Road 35 and U.S. 72, the main east-west highways in Jackson county, bypassed Larkinsville entirely. [17] Today the formerly thriving village remains a tiny rural community.[18]
