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Summary History of Cherokee County
Links to the Counties of:
Barrow Bartow 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.
Cherokee County
In the early part of the 1800’s the northern portion of Georgia was bypassed by most of the settlers moving west because it was considered Indian Country. Until the 1830’s, the Cherokee Indian Nation occupied most of the land in Georgia north of the Chattahoochee River, including what we today call Cherokee County. And the Cherokee Nation also stretched into adjacent areas of Alabama, Tennessee, and North Carolina. (In earlier times, there were also Creek Indians in this area, but they apparently lost control to the Cherokee.) By 1838 all of these Cherokee Indians were being moved to locations in the west. President Andrew Jackson had signed the Indian Removal Act in 1830. With the discovery of gold near Dahlonega in 1829, miners and settlers wanted to move into the northern regions of Georgia. The Treaty of New Echota in December 1835 was one of the final steps toward moving this Cherokee Indian Nation west, which culminated in what is known as The Trail Of Tears.
The first attempt to create Cherokee County was in 1830, but there was little to no official governance over the area, and this attempt to form it into a county failed. On December 26, 1831 the Georgia legislature created a county with judicial powers, and this led to the first significant effort to establish Cherokee County, including all land in Georgia that was west of the Chattahoochee River and north of Carroll County. But the size of this initial “Cherokee County” proved to be vastly too large to govern as a single county, although this period of time did provide the opportunity to survey land and conceive of a more workable solution. Then on December 3, 1832 the Georgia legislature added some areas of Habersham and Hall Counties to this “original” Cherokee County, and then divided that total area into the ten counties of: Cherokee, Cobb, Cass (now called Bartow), Union, Lumpkin, Gilmer, Floyd, Forsyth, Paulding, and Murray. Later, Murray was divided into Murray County and to the west Walker County. Within this eventual version of Cherokee County, the village called Etowah was named the county seat, with the named later changed to Canton. The name Canton was selected as a reference to Canton China, in the hope that silk could be raised here, but that proved to not be feasible. (Note: Parts of this “new” version of Cherokee County were later taken to help create Pickens County and Milton County.)
In the early days of Cherokee County there was mining of various types, including mining for gold. One of the most productive gold mining locations was on the site of what today is called Sixes Mill. The ”gold belt” of Georgia passed through Cherokee County from the southwest to the northeast in a belt about ten miles wide. Along with the Sixes Mines, another very productive mine was the Franklin Mine in the northeast corner of the county. It is said that Mrs. Mary Franklin won a forty acre lot in the Gold Lottery of 1832, found gold on the property, and created an excellent business with a mine that was still producing a thousand dollars worth of gold per day in the late 1800’s. Corn was one of the early crops grown in the county. And along with the mining and farming, it is also said that the County had notable moonshine enterprises!
Cherokee County evolved into a strong agricultural area, and eventually became one of the top cotton producing counties in Georgia. The poultry market had grown strong in this county, but cotton finally overtook it is a primary agri-industry. Canton Cotton Mills, later called Canton Textile Mills, became one of the largest manufacturers in the South. And “Canton Denim” was a high-quality product desired by people throughout the country. A second plant was added in the early 1920’s which employed over a thousand people, and product was made during the 1940’s to support the war effort. In the late 60’s and into the 1970’s demand for cotton lessened due to the introduction and growing demand for polyester fabrics. The mill closed in 1981. In the early 2000’s the mill was changed into lofts.
Important to add, Cherokee County suffered heavily in the 1920’s as the boll weevil destroyed cotton crops. Through the crop-lien system that developed after the Civil War, financially strapped farmers were able to get seed for planting on credit, with the local stores being paid after harvest. But those stores pressured farmers to almost exclusively plant cotton instead of prior crops, such as corn, because cotton had a higher profit potential. This nearly exclusive focus on cotton led to boom and bust periods for the farmers. When the boll weevil came, the area was already in a bust period in terms of lower cotton prices, and then of course there was the Depression. Although there was still some poultry production in the county which somewhat helped offset the decline, the area did not really recover economically until after World War II.
Other Cherokee County communities prominent today took root in the 1800’s. Woodstock was the area of Cherokee first settled, with less of a mountain terrain than found in the northern portion of the county. There were mineral deposits around this community, including the Kellogg Mine. And when the railroad to Canton came through Woodstock, this led to further development of the community. (This railroad built in the late 1870’s, running through the middle of the county, was originally called the Atlanta & Knoxville Railroad, but later named the Marietta & North Georgia Railroad.) Ball Ground, named after what is thought to be an Indian stick-ball game played in the area, became a municipality in 1882 as development was spurred by the railroad. Holly Springs was located near the middle of Georgia’s gold belt, and had one of the two quarries in the U.S. where “green marble” was found. And Waleska derived its name from the daughter of an Indian Chieftain who, along with the tribe, was moved west. Of note, when railroad service finally got to Canton in 1879, R.T.’s General Store (Robert Tyer Jones’ store) grew to be the largest in North Georgia, and between him and a friend of his in Pickens County named Sam Tate, a “rural aristocracy” began to form. (Note: whether or not stick ball was played near Ball Ground, it is thought that the area around Ball Ground did serve as one of the final battle spots between Cherokee and Creek Indians, leading to the Creeks moving south to lands below the Chattahoochee River.)
In 1840 a formal courthouse was built in Canton, near the current square of that city. In 1865 this building was burned by General Sherman’s forces. The Clerk of the Superior Court was able to save papers and records by hiding them in his home. The burning of the courthouse came as a surprise to some, because the majority of people in the Cherokee and Pickens County were pro-Union in their loyalties.
After its “final” formation, the county still went through several changes in shape and size. During the 1850’s and 1860’s some portions of Cherokee County were transferred by the Georgia Assembly to Cass (now Bartow), Cobb, Forsyth, and Pickens Counties. And in May of 1932, portions of Cherokee, Gwinnett, and Cobb Counties, along with all of Campbell and Milton Counties, were ceded to Fulton. It is said that a major impetus for this was the hard depression-era times being suffered by parts of these areas, and it was thought that Fulton County could better handle some of these issues. Today, there are a total of 159 counties in Georgia.
Cherokee County native sons include two state governors, former Secretary of State Dean Rusk, and the famous golfer Bobby Jones.
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:
141,903
37.6%
64,064
71,370
83.9%
49,495
2.85
423.68
334.7
Resources for constructing this summary included:
About North Georgia website,
Cherokee County page:
http://ngeorgia.com/ang/Cherokee_County
Cherokee County Historical Society, Our History page: http://www.rockbarn.org/history.php
Cherokee County Board of Commissioners website, A Brief History of Cherokee County page: http://www.cherokeega.com/ccweb/about/history.cfm
Genealogy Inc website, Cherokee County History and Information page: http://www.mygeorgiagenealogy.com/ga_county/crk.htm
Roadside Georgia website, Archives of Cherokee County page: http://roadsidegeorgia.com/county/cherokee.html
Early Cherokee County History website page: http://www.rootsweb.com/~gacherok/glimpses_cherokeecounty.htm
Carl Vinson Institute of Government website, Cherokee County page: http://www.cviog.uga.edu/Projects/gainfo/histcountymaps/cherokeehistmaps.htm
The New Georgia Encyclopedia website, Cherokee County page: http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-1406
Our Georgia History website, Cherokee County page: http://ourgeorgiahistory.com/ogh/Cherokee_County,_Georgia
U.S. Census Bureau website, Cherokee County, Georgia page: http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/13/13057.html
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