In 1836, two rival land companies purchased the Aberdeen townsite and laid out streets, but with grids askew. One syndicate led by Robert Gordon, who had come from Aberdeen, Scotland, established Old Aberdeen and reserved a block for a courthouse. A second group laid out a grid for New Aberdeen farther west. In 1847, the state legislature made the combined developments, by then called simply Aberdeen, into the county seat. The town thrived as a cotton-shipping port on the Tombigbee River. Railroads arrived after the Civil War, and the area continued to prosper into the twentieth century. Today it remains the seat of federal courts for the Northern District.
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