The name Huntsville comes from John Hunt, the first settler of the land around the Big Spring. The land was purchased by Leroy Pope and he named it Twickenham, and it developed into a carefully planned village. The name was changed to Huntsville during the War of 1812. Incorporated in 1811, the "birth of the city is recognized as the year 1805, when John Hunt first arrived. With early growth from the cotton and railroad industries, Huntsville became the location of the first railway to link the Atlantic seacoast and the Mississippi River in 1855. In the Civil War, Huntsville was seized by Union troops, and it was an important base of operations for the war.
Huntsville had developed in to a small, quiet town by World War II, but during this time it was chosen as the location of Redstone Arsenal and numerous manufacturing plants. In 1949, instead of the Arsenal closing, the U.S. Army choose Huntsville as the location for its missile research program, and would later involve the development of the United States space program. Because of its history with space missions, Huntsville has been nicknamed "The Rocket City." This reputation continued to the present, and Huntsville is now the center of rocket-propulsion research in the United States, large branches of defense contractors, and the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command.
http://www.co.madison.al.us/about/history/
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