Crossville is located atop Sand Mountain, a southern extension of the Cumberland Plateau.

Crossville is a farming community in northeast Alabama, situated on the sandstone plateau of Sand Mountain.

The area's soil, game, climate, and proximity to streams proved attractive to settlers, the majority of whom were drawn there from neighboring states following the expulsion of the indigenous Creeks.

Sand Mountain lay in an area that included disputed borders between the Creeks and the Cherokee.

However, white settlement in the area increased steadily, coming to a head with the gold rush in the nearby mountains of northwest Georgia.

That expulsion is called the Trail of Tears, considered an act of genocide because of the thousands who died on the journey, and the forced removal of native peoples from their home territories.

(In nearby Fort Payne, which lies across the valley and at the foot of next-door Lookout Mountain, there is a historical sign marking the town as one of the starting points for the Trail of Tears, and also the area where Sequoyah lived, who developed the Cherokee alphabet.)

In fact, there was serious discussion among Northern Alabama and East Tennessee counties about forming a proposed state of Nickajack, rather than going along with secession.

A perusal of the cavalries' rosters[6][7] will reveal family names that to this day are prominent in the area.

[11] In the mid-19th century, mail was brought through Crossville from Rome, Georgia, and Guntersville, Alabama, via stagecoach.

[citation needed] The community's first Baptist church was established in 1892 at Union Grove east of the town center.

In 1925, several people started meeting at the high school and formed the First Baptist Church of Crossville.

Crossville established its first school, a one-room structure with a single teacher and approximately 50 students, in the late 19th century at Bryant's Chapel Church.

[citation needed] Dr. Luther F. Erwin was chosen mayor, and the town government established ordinances and levied privilege licenses.

Collection enforcement was lax, however, resulting in insufficient resources to maintain basic town services.