Woodville, AL

Woodville is Jackson County’s oldest town, with a story that reaches back to Henry Derrick’s settlement around 1815. The Alabama Legislature officially established it on December 13, 1819—one day before Alabama became a state—and the name honors Richard and Annie Wood. That timing gives the town an unusually early place in the state’s map. Woodville later sat in the middle of changing county lines and river routes, becoming a county seat for a short-lived Decatur County before returning to the Jackson County orbit.

ATTRBrian Stansberry / CC BY 4.0

The physical setting still tells the story. State Route 35 runs through town, the older streets sit west of the highway along County Road 8, and the Paint Rock River and railroad corridor run just to the west. A 1909 building houses the Woodville Historical Center, while the nearby Paint Rock River bridge and railroad bridge keep the transportation history visible. Woodville was incorporated in 1890, lost its charter seven years later, and reincorporated in 1912. It is a small northeast Alabama town whose long life is written in river crossings, rail lines, and statehood-era paperwork.