A settlement existed at and around present-day Gurley before the 1800s in Madison County, in the rich agricultural, mineral, and timber belt of northern Alabama. Gurley lies 16 miles east of Huntsville and 80 miles west of Chattanooga on the Memphis and Charleston Railroad near the line between Madison and Jackson counties. In 1830, several families, including John Gurley’s, purchased land and built homes in what was then a dense timber forest covering red clay lands and lowlands thick with canebrake. The area contained abundant game for hunting, and natural springs and wells supplied pure water. For many years, it remained a wooded area with no public roads. The railroad was built through the area in 1857, and because of a large cedar water tank that supplied steam-driven train engines, the town became known as Gurley’s Tank. When a post office was established in 1867, the name changed to Gurleysville, and it was later shortened to Gurley because mail for Guntersville was often confused with Gurleysville. By 1892, Gurley had 24 businesses, including livery stables, saloons, hotels, three churches, and a school, along with physicians, a druggist, blacksmiths, woodworkers, bankers, jewelers, and a photographer. It had two newspapers, The Gurley Record and later The Gurley Herald. In 1890, alongside a large mercantile business, Gurley also had several manufacturing establishments, including the Eagle Pencil Mill. Over the years, fire ravaged the business district at least three times, and in 1923 a fire almost completely destroyed it, sparing only two stores.