Heading North towards Amory

About Amory and Aberdeen
History explains the long-term rivalry between Amory and Aberdeen.

In 1816, the first white settlement in Monroe County began at Wise’s Gap, later dubbed Old Quincy, eight miles east of the present Amory. In those times, a town with a church, several stores, an inn, a cemetery, a campground and a blacksmith shop was considered to have the makings of a metropolis. But Old Quincy never made it. An upstart town named Athens beat Old Quincy out and became the county seat.

But Athens did not hold its position for long. New towns snatched the title and the people who came with it. Cotton Gin Port – a trading post for the Chickasaw Indians before they were forced to move west – became the next county seat. In turn, Cotton Gin Port lost out to a new neighbor, Aberdeen, located 15 miles down the Tombigbee River.

Meanwhile, in 1877, the railroad staked out its right of way across the area and missed Cotton Gin Port entirely. A new town, Amory, was formed on the railroad. Residents of Cotton Gin Port, after realizing the railroad would take trade away from the river, made what one writer called "a whole-sale" exodus to the new town. Amory would soon become the county seat.

Enraged, the people of Aberdeen argued it was unfair to yank the title from their beloved city. After all, it was older, and more historic. But so were the towns before it, towns that once wore the crown of county seat but were forced to pass it on to a younger, larger community.

Read more on http://www.ccom.ua.edu/Tombigbee/amory.html

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