On this day in Alabama history: Jefferson County settler Warren Truss was born

May 2, 1772

Warren Truss was born in Pitt County, North Carolina, on May 2, 1772. Truss and his brothers moved with their families around 1817 to what was then part of St. Clair County. Truss purchased land on the edge of the Cahaba River in Jefferson County in 1821. He set up a grist mill and started a settlement, which became Truss. It remained an agricultural community until the Alabama-Chattanooga Railroad was built through the area after the Civil War. Trussville was incorporated in 1947. The town officially became a city on May 31, 1957, and adopted the name, Trussville. Today, Trussville is one of the fastest growing communities in the Birmingham area. Between 1980 and 2010, the population grew by 500 percent. It has blossomed with much residential and retail construction across the area.

Read more at www.bhamwiki.com.

This historic marker describing the founding of Trussville is located in front of Trussville City Hall. (Scooter Bill, muddawber, Waymarking.com)

Heritage Hall in Trussville, Jefferson County, was built in 1938 as part of the Cahaba Project, a housing initiative of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal. The building originally housed a store and filling station. It was restored in 1988 and is used as a meeting place for various civic organizations. (From Encyclopedia of Alabama, courtesy of Ginger Ann Brook)

A home in Trussville, built as part of the Cahaba Project planned community during the Depression era. (From Encyclopedia of Alabama, courtesy of Sandra Bearden)

Happy Hollow District Bridge spans the Cahaba River in Civitan Park in Trussville. (From Encyclopedia of Alabama, courtesy of William Bearden)

For more on Alabama’s Bicentennial, visit Alabama 200.