Ball Play

This suburb of Hokes Bluff is a rural community located in northeastern Etowah County.

When white settlers arrived, it was already prime hunting territory for the Indians.  It wasn't long before the settlers learned to also partake of this bounty.

The Indians had a specific section of land in this area where they congregated to settle controversies by either fighting or playing a game of ball. The "ball," made of animal hides tightly wrapped with rawhide, was never touched but was maneuvered with two sticks and apparently was part of a rough and rowdy competition. The exact site of the playing field is unknown today, but was somewhere along the Coosa River within Township 12 Range 9, Sections 8 and 9.

In December 1832, the playing field figured significantly in settling a controversy between the Cherokees and Creeks. According to an article in the Gadsden Times, dated July 7, 1876, the tribes decided to establish a neutral territory between the Cherokee and Creek nations with the land to be taken from the loser. A four mile wide and twenty mile long parcel of land along Ball Play Creek was at stake. Several thousand men, women and children of both tribes met at the playing field to watch the competition. After the Creeks won the game, they danced and celebrated throughout the night and into the next day. Having to relinquish territorial claim to the land was devastating to the Cherokees. It is reported that several white men who had already settled in the area were present as guests of the Cherokees. For many years, the game was told and retold by Indians and whites alike.

When the post office was established in 1840, the territory was in Cherokee County. The first postmaster was John Robinson.

Other postmasters were: Pleasant Edwards, 1854; John G. Garrett, 1855; John F. Peace, Newton W. Davis, and N.J. Estes.  The Ball Play post office was annexed into Baine County in 1867, then into Etowah County on December 1, 1868.  In 1881 the postmaster was M.C. Brown.  The Ball Play post office was discontinued in 1905.

In 1909, some of the people who had mail boxes in Ball Play were: