early travel

Many early roads followed Indian trails, such as the stage road through Lauderdale Springs and Daleville, which were among the first communities to have stagecoach service. Original surveys showed a road running southwest to northeast between Lauderdale and Enterprise. This was probably the early route of U.S. Highway 11 and most likely ran through present-day Meridian by way of Sixth Street. One mail and stage route was possibly the “Choctaw Trail.” On this route in 1800 a stagecoach stop was erected in the community of Lauderdale. A major stage line was the Jemison and Ficklin stage line. Coaches arrived in Marion on Monday, Wednesday and Friday evenings and stopped at the Bains Hotel in the town square so passengers could eat in the hotel’s café. Other important roads were the Marion–Livingston Road and the Gaston Road running from Marion to Alabama by way of Alamucha. An early road to Alabama probably followed the route of Highway 19 through Lauderdale County. Decatur Road from Marion may have followed today’s Seventh Street in Meridian.

By late 1835, Scott, Newton, and Lauderdale County residents had persuaded the legislature to establish a mail route from Jackson eastward through Brandon, to the three county seats of Scott, Newton and Lauderdale counties, passing through Alamucha to the county seat of Sumter County, Alabama. Postal authorities wished to upgrade three routes to Lauderdale County so that the coaches pulled by four horses would have greater speeds.