Explore Alabama: Cleburne County is located on what was once Creek and Cherokee Indian land. The first settlers came to the area in the 1820s and named the town of Edwardsville as the county seat. Settlement in the area remained sparse until the 1830s, when gold was discovered in the vicinity of Arbacoochee and Chulafinnee in the southern part of the county. By 1836, some 5,000 miners had moved to the area in hopes of striking it rich.