Created in 1818 by the territorial legislature, the county was named for Revolutionary hero Gen. St. Clair. Its first settlers came from Tennessee and Georgia and were veterans of the Creek Indian War of 1813-14. Pell City was established as an industrial town in 1890 by George H. Pell of New York. Growth in population south of Backbone Mt. and the difficulty of crossing the mountain led to a branch county seat there in 1902, while the county seat had been at Ashville since 1822. Old Indian trails through the county were used by DeSoto’s Spanish conquistadors in 1540, Andrew Jackson’s forces in 1813-14, and Generals Rosseau and Craxton in 1864-65.