Etowah County, Alabama

Etowah County is a county of the U.S. state of Alabama. As of the 2010 census the population was 104,430. Its county seat is Gadsden. Its name is from a Cherokee word meaning "edible tree". In total area, it is the smallest county in Alabama, but one of the most densely populated.Etowah County comprises the Gadsden, AL Metropolitan Statistical Area.HistoryThe territory of Etowah County was originally split among the neighboring counties, with most of it belonging to DeKalb and Cherokee counties. It was separated and established as Baine County on December 7, 1866, by the first postwar legislature, named for General David W. Baine of the Confederate Army. The county seat was designated as Gadsden.Because of postwar tensions and actions against freedmen, a state constitutional convention was called in 1868. During it, this new county was abolished, replaced on December 1, 1868 by one aligned to the same boundaries and named Etowah County, from a Cherokee language word. Most of the Cherokee had been removed in the 1830s to Indian Territory west of the Mississippi River.