Among Salem’s earliest settlers were the families of Henry Crowder, Dr. D. W. Floyd, Charles Nelms, W. W. Burt, George Heard, John Askew, Moses Pruitt, and Dr. McCoy. Rev. F. L. Cherry wrote that the town was laid off in 1836 by Benjamin H. Baker, Dr. Erastus Jones, and B. S. Mangham. A schoolhouse was built in 1837, and Professor Sheppard, the first teacher, was followed by Professor Sanders in 1838. Early additions to the community included academies for girls and boys, Baptist and Methodist churches, and a camp meeting ground. A stagecoach stop stood on the west side of town, and a picnic ground popular for public gatherings probably saw its most exciting day during an 1856 presidential rally. By 1855, railroad service linked Salem with Opelika and Columbus, Georgia. Local tradition holds that a district courthouse was built in Salem to serve upper Russell County, and the building still stands. When Lee County was created on December 5, 1866, Salem became part of the new county and received the second highest vote total for seat of government. The first three Lee County probate judges came from Old Russell County. Two and one half miles east is Wacoochee Covered Bridge, the last remaining Kissin bridge in Lee County and one of very few in Alabama, a one-span seventy-five foot town lattice bridge built no later than between 1865 and 1880 and fully restored by the Lee County Commission.