The City of Huntsville was incorporated on November 25, 1811.
Due to settlement pressures after the United States gained independence, this area had become largely empty of indigenous peoples by the turn of the 19th century. An Indian trader and boatman named James Ditto established himself at a landing on the river prior to American settlement. Revolutionary War veteran John Hunt was a pioneer in 1805 on land around the Big Spring. The US negotiated an 1805 treaty with the Chickasaw and an 1806 treaty with the Cherokee who ceded their claims to land to the federal government.
The area was subsequently purchased by LeRoy Pope, who named it Twickenham after the home village of his distant kinsman Alexander Pope. Thomas Freeman and Pharoah Roach started government surveys in 1805. Twickenham was carefully planned, with streets laid out in a northeast to southwest direction based on the flow of Big Spring. Given anti-British sentiment during this period after the Revolution and with tensions leading to the War of 1812, in 1811 the town name was changed to "Huntsville" to honor pioneer John Hunt.
Both John Hunt and LeRoy Pope were Freemasons and charter members of Helion Lodge #1, the oldest lodge in Alabama.