The War of 1812, geography, geology, and three cultures shaped the history of Leeds. At the crossroads of ancient Indian paths in central Alabama, Leeds drew European, Cherokee, and African American settlers to a land with fertile growing seasons and rich sources of coal and mineral ore. Early settlers built churches and schools, and the influences of Cedar Grove, Oak Ridge, Ohanafeefee, and Mt. Pleasant remained evident in Leeds. The settlement, dating to 1818 and incorporating as Leeds in 1887, existed along the banks of the Little Cahaba River, beside a historic stagecoach road, and along two active railroads for much of American history. James Hamilton, a Scottish-Irish American veteran of the War of 1812 and the first sheriff of Shelby County, settled at Cedar Grove in 1818. John Richard Ingram Pashal Stewart, a Cherokee English teacher and American veteran of the War of 1812, settled at Ohanafeefee Village about 1840. At Oak Ridge in 1820 or 1821, European settlers formed Shiloh Cumberland Presbyterian Church, the first Cumberland Presbyterian Church congregation in middle Alabama. By 1887, early railroad pioneers included free African American settlers who came to work at the Leeds cement plant and on the Central of Georgia and Georgia Pacific railroads. Some gravitated to Historic Mt. Pleasant Church, where a handful of freed slaves had founded Scott City. Hillard Holley, Ciscero Davis, Jeff Harris, and Bill Johnson started Leeds Negro Primary School in 1921.