Leighton, Alabama
| Leighton, Alabama | |
|---|---|
| Town | |
 Location in Colbert County and the state of Alabama |
|
| Coordinates: 34°41′59″N 87°31′51″W / 34.69972°N 87.53083°W | |
| Country | United States |
| State | Alabama |
| County | Colbert |
| Area | |
| • Total | 1.0 sq mi (2.6 km2) |
| • Land | 1.0 sq mi (2.6 km2) |
| • Water | 0 sq mi (0 km2) |
| Elevation | 568 ft (173 m) |
| Population (2010) | |
| • Total | 729 |
| • Density | 740/sq mi (285.9/km2) |
| Time zone | Central (CST) (UTC-6) |
| • Summer (DST) | CDT (UTC-5) |
| ZIP code | 35646 |
| Area code(s) | 256 |
| FIPS code | 01-42160 |
| GNIS feature ID | 0152020 |
Leighton is a town in Colbert County, Alabama, United States. It is part of the Florence - Muscle Shoals Metropolitan Statistical Area known as "The Shoals". At the 2010 census the population was 729. Leighton has been hit by several tornadoes in the 2000s, including a damaging EF2 on May 8, 2008, that was caught on tape flipping over many cars and damaging buildings.
The first settlers in what is now Leighton arrived as early as 1813. The community's first name was Crossroads, for its location at the intersection of one road that ran from the Tennessee River to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and another that connected Huntsville to Tuscumbia, Alabama. The first business at the intersection was a tavern.
The name was changed to Leighton for Rev. William Leigh, a minister and entrepreneur who also served as the first postmaster in 1824. In 1826, the town's population expanded dramatically after 20 families from North Carolina settled there. In 1833, the Tuscumbia, Courtland and Decatur Railroad built a line through the city, and Leighton became a shipping center for cotton. The town incorporated in 1890 and remained a major shipping center well into the twentieth century.
Leighton originally straddled the county line of Franklin and Lawrence Counties. When Colbert County was carved off in 1867, the town still remained divided between the new county and Lawrence. On the 1880 U.S. Census, it reported having 196 residents on the Colbert County side and 83 on the Lawrence County side. After the 1890 Census, Colbert County's eastern border was expanded eastward several miles to Town Creek, placing Leighton wholly within Colbert.
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