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· In a beautiful fertile valley some six miles long and three miles wide, formed between two rivers and two
mountains, lies the little town of Gurley, Alabama. Gurley is located in Madison county, 16 miles east of Huntsville and 80 miles west of Chattanooga on the Memphis and Charleston railroad line (now called Southern railroad). It started in 1857 as a water tank near railroad tracks on the large and fertile farm of the father of Captain Frank B. Gurley, of Civil War fame. Because of the abundant supply of water from this tank, a few people began to build their homes near it. Mr. R. T. Hall and a Mr. Morrow erected the first stores near this water tank, and thus was laid the foundations of what is now the little town of Gurley.

· In 1830, several families, including that of John Gurley, purchased land and built homes in this area. John
Gurley became the owner of the greater portion of the land and continued to have a nice home with a large
plantation into the civil war. His son, Captain Frank Gurley, was a confederate veteran and confidential assistant of General Forrest. Captain Frank Gurley was said to be one of the most noted guerrilla chiefs of this region during the civil war. To quote the editor of the Gurley Herald, G. T. Shelley, in 1909 who said “Captain Gurley’s soldier life was a varied and checkered one, full of heroism, tragedy and pathos from beginning to end. No braver or truer soldier shouldered a gun in the south that our own Captain Frank B. Gurley.” After the war, Captain Frank Gurley donated a one mile square area extending in equal proportions from the water tank for the town site.