Where exactly was the William Weatherford Road in Monroe County, Alabama?

William Weatherford, aka, 'Red Eagle'

On the front page of the Nov. 21, 1957 edition of The Monroe Journal, the newspaper carried a story that bore the headline, “Newly-Surfaced Road In County To Bear Name Of Indian Chief.” That story went on to say that 15 miles of highway in Monroe County being hard surfaced was to be named for the famous Creek Indian chief, William Weatherford.

Probate Judge E.T. Millsap told the Journal on Nov. 20 of that year that Alabama Governor James “Big Jim” Folsom suggested that the road from Jeddo to Eliska to Chrysler be designated as the “William Weatherford Road.” The Journal noted that the construction of the road was being jointly financed by the state and county.

“Many of the descendants of the Creek Indian chief, also known as ‘Red Eagle,’ lived in the vicinity where the road is being asphalted,” according to that week’s Journal.

On the surface, this story appears to be straight forward, but a deep look into the facts leads to some interesting questions. First off, when you check the county’s present-day highway map, you’ll see that there is no William Weatherford Road. However, there is a Weatherford Road in that part of the county, but it’s only about 3-1/2 miles long, not 15 miles long as described in the story above.

A little over a year after the first “William Weatherford Road” story was published, The Journal ran another front-page story about it in the Jan. 15, 1959 edition of the paper, under the headline “State Lets Contract For County Bridges.” That story told readers that the state had let a contract on bridges on Shomo Creek and Waller’s Creek on the Chief William Weatherford Road near Eliska.

Maps show that there are no bridges on modern-day Weatherford Road, and while this road crosses over a branch stemming from Shomo Creek, the road definitely does not travel over Waller’s Creek. With that said, there are bridges over Shomo Creek on County Road 8 and over Waller’s Creek on County Road 1.

The only other mention of the “William Weatherford Road” that I could find was on the front page of the Oct. 27, 1960 edition of The Journal. That week’s paper reported that 14 miles on the William Weatherford Road at Eliska was among seven recently-completed highway projects that resulted in “extensive hard-surfacing” of 40-1/2 miles of roads in Monroe County.

In the end, if I had to make an educated guess, I would say that the old William Weatherford Road began at what is now the intersection of the Jeddo Road and the Tower Road, east of Poplar Springs Baptist Church at Jeddo. The old William Weatherford Road then ran west along modern-day Tower Road to County Road 1 at Eliska, where it crossed the bridge over Waller’s Creek before turning into what we now call County Road 8. The old William Weatherford Road then followed County Road 8 generally south, where it crossed the bridge over Shomo Creek and then ended at modern-day State Highway 59 at Chrysler. This route is about 14 to 15 miles long, travels from Jeddo to Chrysler, and crosses both bridges mentioned in the newspaper.

In the end, one is left to wonder why the William Weatherford Road name didn’t stick. At what point did the road’s name fade from use, only to be replaced by modern names like Tower Road, County Road 1 and County Road 8? Perhaps someone in the reading audience will be able to shed more light on the subject. If so, please email me at news@monroejournal.com.