Decatur al Wedding

Decatur, Alabama, is a city in Morgan County, Alabama, with a small portion in southern Limestone County. Decatur is the core city of the Decatur Metropolitan Area, and the second largest (core) city in the Huntsville-Decatur Combined Statistical Area. Decatur sits on the southern bank of the Tennessee River. Decatur currently has an estimated population of 54,528.

Decatur is served by the Huntsville International Airport (a part of the Port of Huntsville), as well as Pryor Field Regional Airport.

Initially the area was known as Rhodes Ferry, named after a ferry that crossed the Tennessee River in the 1810s at the present day location of Rhodes Ferry Park. The city was incorporated as Albany in the year 1821. It was named Decatur in honor of Stephen Decatur. After Decatur was killed in a duel in 1820, President Monroe directed that the Alabama town be named for him (Stewart, pg. 235).

Decatur was a very important point in North Alabama during its earliest days. Decatur was the Eastern Terminous of the Decatur-Courtland-Tuscumbia Railroad (in the late 1820s and early 1830s), the first railway built west of the Appalachian Mountains.