John Melton (abt. 1745 - 1815)

Born about 1745 in Ireland

Husband of Acumo (Cherokee) Melton — married 1780 in Lawrence County, Alabama

Descendants

Died 7 Jun 1815 at about age 70 in At home, below Fort Hampton, Lawrence, Alabama

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John Melton was one of the early Irish people in Lawrence County, Alabama who came during the 1780's with the Cherokee Indians and stayed until his death. Melton, an Irishman by birth, married a Cherokee woman who was the sister of the most powerful Chickamauga Cherokee of the Great Bend. He died at a large farm on the north side of the Tennessee River. He built a fine house on the north side of the river and died rich in a good old age.

Melton moved to the north side of the river in what is present-day Limestone County, Alabama a few years before he died for fear of Creek raids from the south. In addition, some speculate that the assassination of his brother-in-law Doublehead was the reason John Melton moved. Melton and his family had personally benefitted from the Cotton Gin Treaty of January 7, 1806, negotiated by Doublehead. Melton was also accused by some of participating in piracy of folks stranded on the shoals and stealing their slaves and property.

His son, David, sold Melton's Bluff to Andrew ("Old Hickory") Jackson. The price is stated as $50, but that can't be correct since it included forty slaves. Jackson sold the place (he called it "Marathon") in 1827 - he was elected President in 1828.

Another Accounting:

From Dead Towns of Alabama book (Page 92-93)

Melton's Bluff (Marathon). This early county seat was at the head of the Elk River shoals, on the south back of the Tennessee River, in Lawrence County. Today the site lies below the waters of the Tennessee River, 2 miles above Lock A. Lawrence County was created by the Alabama Legislature on February 4, 1818, and Melton's Bluff was selected as the seat of the county government. At that time it was the largest town in the county and the first to be founded. The town was named in honor of John Melton, an Irishman who had come into the area many years before because of his displeasure with his fellow man. There he married a Cherokee woman and raised a family. This unfriendly man accumulated a fortune by robbing pioneers on the flatboats traveling on the river below the bluff. With this money he purchased many slaves and established a tavern. When he died around the year 1815, his plantation was bought by Andrew Jackson, who worked it with 60 slaves. Later Jackson and his associate John Coffee had the bluff surveyed and divided into 658 lots for a town, hoping to attract settlers to complete with the nearby town of Bainbridge. Anne Newport Royall, a visitor in 1818, described the beauty of the site. After 1819, the town was listed on state maps as Marathon. IN 1820 the county seat was removed to Moulton, an act which killed Matathon. It was last listed on a state map in 1850.