Willstown was an important town in the southwesternmost part of the nation (in present-day DeKalb and Etowah Counties in Alabama) prior to the Indian removal of 1836. The settlement of Willstown began at the southernmost end of historic Lookout Mountain within its shadow near the banks of Lookout or Little Wills Creek, sitting in the present right of way of the Great Southern Railroad and bordered to the northwest by an ancient trade path known as US Highway Eleven since the 1920s in what is now Attalla, Alabama, continuing north along the confluence of the mountain through what is now Reece City, Crudup, Keener, Collinsville, Killian, through Fort Payne into Valley Head and the old mining settlement of Battelle. There are three known trading sites along the stretch between Attalla and Collinsville and numerous burials, homesites and remnants of farms. The settlement was commonly called Willstown, after its headman, a red-headed man of mixed-race named Will Weber, or RedHead Chief Will, who was famous for his mane of thick red hair. The town, sometimes also called Wattstown because Chickamauga leader, John Watts, used it as his headquarters, was founded during the Chickamauga wars, and later served as the council seat of the Lower Cherokee well into the 19th century. Will Weber emigrated to the Arkansas country in 1796, and John Watts died in 1802.
According to Major John Norton, a more accurate transliteration would have been Titsohili. The son of a mixed-blood Cherokee adoptee of the Mohawk, Norton grew up among Native Americans and traveled extensively in the region in the early 19th century. He stayed at Willstown several times.[1]
The site of Willstown is north of the city of Ft. Payne, close to the Valley Head area. The former Fort Payne was built to intern Cherokees prior to their removal on the Trail of Tears. Its site is in downtown Ft. Payne. There are still remnant earthworks at the site.