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Summary History of Bartow County
Links to the Counties of:
Barrow Cherokee Cobb Dawson DeKalb Douglas Forsyth Fulton Gwinnett Hall Paulding
Or link to Atlanta
Note: I am not a historian, but I have great interest in these areas where I sell homes.
The following information is culled from a variety of sources.
Although I can not guarantee accuracy within those sources,
I took care to write the following with as much accuracy as I could achieve.
Bartow County
Bartow County was created from an early version of Cherokee County on December 3, 1832. Originally it was named Cass County, in honor of Lewis Cass who was Secretary of War under President Andrew Jackson. He was also a U.S. Senator, Secretary of State under President James Buchanan, Minister to France, governor of the Michigan Territory, steered Michigan to statehood, and ran unsuccessfully for U.S. President as a Democrat in 1848. Cass was very much in favor of removal of Cherokee and other Indians from Georgia territory.
The county was renamed in 1861 to Bartow County. This was to honor the Confederate General Francis Bartow, who was killed in July of 1861 in the Battle of Manassas. Only half of his troops were able to arrive in time for the battle. General Bartow moved to the front of his troops and led them down Henry Hill, where he was wounded and died. (Note: By this time Lewis Cass had fallen into disfavor with people in the county due to the fact that he had previously been an advocate for reinforcing the level of U.S., or in other words Union, troops in southern forts.)
Located in the flood plain of the Etowah River, this area was fertile for agriculture, and served early-on as a home for Native Americans. These early Indian inhabitants built ceremonial mounds. It is thought that these Moundbuilders arrived in the area around 1000AD, and remained as an active culture until sometime in the 1500’s. They were a transitional culture that exhibited traits of both the Hopewell Indians and Mississippians. The Creek Indian Nation, perhaps descended from the ancient Moundbuilder culture, subsequently controlled this area until around 1755, when they lost control to the Cherokee Nation, with the Creek Indians then moving south. Within the area now called Bartow County, the land between the Etowah and Chattahoochee Rivers was established as, essentially, a combat-free zone where both Creek and Cherokee could pass freely and could meet and trade. (Note: by the time the Spanish expedition under DeSoto entered the area around 1540, the Mississippian Moundbuilder period was essentially over.)
White adventurers and settlers started entering this area around, and just after, 1800. There were several routes established that headed toward the west from North Georgia. Taken together these were know as the Alabama Road, with perhaps the most important route for this being along the Hightower Trail. This route headed west from the Chattahoochee River near the current city of Gainesville and led to Cartersville, and then on west through Euharlee. The area of the state of Alabama especially began to grow following the Creek War. Note: The present city of Cartersville was built on the site of the Cherokee village called Hightower.
In the 1830’s land lotteries were held where settlers and prospectors could win 40 or 160 acre lots. The 40 acre lots were located where it was thought gold might exist, and thus a 40 acre lot was deemed to be as valuable as a 160 acre non-gold lot. While a bit of gold was found in this county, iron proved to be a more abundant mineral here.
Cassville became the county seat in 1833, and evolved into a major center of commerce and culture, include a men’s and a women’s college. At one time, Cassville was larger than either Atlanta or Chattanooga! And by 1850 Cassville had surpassed Ringgold as the largest city in North Georgia. Other principal communities included Kingston and Adairsville, which were major stops on the Western and Atlantic Railroad. Kingston had a large rail yard, and Adairsville had a major maintenance facility for the railroad. The community of Birmingham (which was built on the site of the Cherokee village of Hightower) had a depot. In 1846 Birmingham, Georgia became Cartersville.
The land where the community of Etowah existed is now under Lake Allatoona. (As a side note, Lake Allatoona was built to control the frequent flooding of the Etowah River Valley.) However, in the early days of Cass (Bartow) County, Mark Anthony Cooper was a primary figure in the town of Etowah, promoting facilities for the manufacturing of wood products, flour, and iron (and he bought the iron foundry built by Jacob Stroup). By the 1840’s Mr. Cooper’s Etowah Manufacturing and Mining Company was a thriving business. He was also one of the figures who helped develop the Western and Atlantic Railroad. In addition, he built his own railroad spur past his foundry, called the Etowah Railroad … and it was his engine for this railroad (called the Yonah) that was the first locomotive to give chase after the Union raiders who had stolen The General locomotive from the station at Kennesaw. By the way, a Confederate locomotive (the Texas) that later gave chase after Andrew’s Raiders had to run in reverse for its portion of the chase!
As a side note, the monument which stands today near the railroad depot in Cartersville “is perhaps the world’s only monument erected by a debtor to honor his creditors.” --- Mr. Cooper’s business went through a period of hard times, and in 1854 to stave off bankruptcy he borrowed $200,000 from 34 friends. The loan allowed him to continue his mining business, and by 1860 he had fully recovered financially and was able to pay back, with interest, the money he borrowed. As a gesture of appreciation Mr. Cooper erected this monument with the names of all 34 people who had lent him money. And for a period of time, the mining industry became an important underpinning to the economy of the area. In fact according to the Bartow County History page, “Bartow County and Cartersville are labeled as the oldest continuing mining district in the United States.” Although iron is no longer mined, there continues mining and processing of other ores.
In the Georgia Secession Convention of 1861 the three delegates from Cass County all voted against secession. But when the state voted to leave the Union, lots of manpower and materials from this county became intimately involved in the war.
During the Civil War camps were established in this county to train and house soldiers. One of these camps was near the Etowah River railroad bridge, and the fact that there were so many soldiers close to the bridge may have contributed to the failure of Andrew James’ expedition to burn that bridge during “The Great Locomotive Chase.”
In General Sherman’s march to Atlanta, many areas of this county were destroyed. The communities of Cassville and Etowah were wiped out, and other communities suffered major damage. The Union forces, however, did preserve the iron foundry at Etowah, and used that for their own manufacturing needs. Union forces also preserved the railroad and any other supporting facility that could be an asset to them. In addition to the Great Locomotive Chase (Andrew’s Raiders), another Civil War conflict of significance was the engagement at Allatoona Pass In October 1864, near the Cobb County boundary.
After the Civil War the growing of cotton eventually became an economic staple for the county. But in the 1920’s when cotton prices fell and the boll weevil problem consumed the area, this county fell into major hardship. To somewhat offset this, the state and federal governments began the construction project of completing Highway 41 between Atlanta and Chattanooga. Also approved in the 1930’s was the dam that created Lake Allatoona, which was finished in 1947.
Also following the war, and given the massive destruction at Cassville, Cartersville with it prominent position on the rail line became a magnet, and many people moved from Cassville to Cartersville. Cartersville subsequently became the new county seat. In the 1870’s a new courthouse was built in Cartersville. But due to its proximity to the railroad tracks the location was found to be too noisy. A different courthouse was erected in 1903, and it still stands today and houses some government operations.
Manufacturing has become increasingly important to the county. In 1903 the American Textile Company began operations. And a series of other concerns have continued to move into the area, such as Shaw Industries and Anheuser-Busch, to name just two.
Famous people who resided in Bartow County include former Georgia Governor Joe Frank Harris, Rebecca Latimer Felton (the nation’s first female U.S. Senator), evangelist Sam Jones, and newspaper columnist and humorist Charles Henry Smith (“Bill Arp”).
From The U.S. Census Bureau
2000 Population:
Population change (April 1, 2000 to
July 1, 2006):
Median Household Income 2004:
Housing Units 2005:
Home Ownership Rate 2000:
Households 2000:
Persons per Household 2000:
2000 Land Area (sq miles):
2000 Persons per Sq Mile:
76,019
20.1%
46,219
35,075
75.3%
27,176
2.76
459.43
165.6
Resources for constructing this summary included:
Roadside Georgia website, Archives
of Bartow County page:
http://roadsidegeorgia.com/county/bartow.html
Carl Vinson Institute of Government, Bartow County page: http://www.cviog.uga.edu/Projects/gainfo/histcountymaps/bartowhistmaps.htm
Bartow County Government website, welcome page: http://www.bartowga.org/
Bartow County Government website, History page: http://www.bartowga.org/profileInfo/History.htm
GAGenWeb website, Bartow County History page: http://www.gabartow.org/hist/bartowHist.shtml
Cartersville-Bartow County Convention & Visitors Bureau website, page titled A History Of Bartow County, GA: http://www.notatlanta.org/history.html
U.S. Census Bureau website, Bartow County, Georgia page: http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/13/13015.html
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