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Other Information:
Gordon County's first courthouse -- a two-story brick building
-- was completed in 1852. This structure was destroyed by a severe
storm in 1888. A new two-story brick courthouse with clock tower
was built in 1889 (see photo
1 and
photo 2). This building served the county until 1961, when
the present courthouse was completed.
County History:
Gordon County was created on Feb. 13, 1850 by an act of the General
Assembly (Ga. Laws 1849-50, p. 124). The new county was formed
from portions of Cass (later renamed Bartow) and Floyd counties.
All lands that would become Gordon County were originally occupied
by the Cherokee Indians -- and, in fact, the area was home of
New Echota, capital of the Cherokee Nation. Even while Cherokees
remained on their homeland, the Georgia General Assembly enacted
legislation in Dec. 1830 that provided for surveying the Cherokee
Nation (see
map) in Georgia and dividing it into sections, districts,
and land lots (see
map). Subsequently, the legislature identified this entire
area as "Cherokee County" (even though it never functioned
as a county). An act of Dec. 3, 1832 divided the Cherokee lands
into ten new counties -- Cass (later renamed Bartow), Cherokee,
Cobb, Floyd, Forsyth, Gilmer, Lumpkin, Murray, Paulding, and
Union. Cherokee lands were distributed to whites in a land lottery,
but the legislature temporarily prohibited whites from taking
possession of lots on which Cherokees still lived.
It was not until Dec. 29, 1835 that Georgia had an official
basis for claiming the unceded Cherokee lands that included the
future location of Gordon County. In the Treaty
of New Echota, a faction of the Cherokees agreed to give
up all Cherokee claims to land in Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee,
and North Carolina and move west in return for $5 million. Though
a majority of Cherokees opposed the treaty and refused to leave,
the U.S. and Georgia considered it binding. In 1838, U.S. Army
troops rounded up the last of 15,000 Cherokees in Georgia and
forced them to march west in what came to be known as the "Trail
of Tears."
Gordon County's original 1850 boundaries (see
legal description) were changed numerous times between 1852
to 1877, during which time the legislature transferred portions
of Cass (Bartow), Floyd, Murray, Pickens, and Walker counties
to Gordon County, while transferring land from Gordon to Floyd
and Murray counties.
Georgia's 94th county was named for William Washington Gordon
(1796-1842), the first Georgian to graduate from West Point and
first president of the Central of Georgia Railroad. [Click here
to view a monument to William Gordon in Savannah.]
County Seat:
The act creating Gordon County provided that an election of county
officers would be held on the first Monday in February 1851,
after which the new justices of inferior court would be authorized
to select a site for the county seat, purchase land, and contract
for construction of county buildings. Until a courthouse could
be built, the act provided that Gordon County elections and public
business take place "at the court-house in the seventh district
of the third section." By 1847, the Western &
Atlantic Railroad had been built through the western portion
of the area that would become Gordon County. In the late 1840s,
a settlement developed on the railroad at a site near the Oostanaula
River (see
map). Originally known as Dawsonville (named for the owner
of an early general store), the town was renamed Calhoun following
the death of U.S. Senator John
C. Calhoun in 1850. Rather than designate the location of
the county seat, Gordon County's inferior court called an election
to let the voters choose between a site on the Western &
Atlantic Railroad or a site more centrally located in the county.
Voters chose a site on the railroad, so the inferior court designated
Calhoun as county seat in 1851 (see
1837 map). The legislature incorporated Calhoun in an act
approved on Jan. 12, 1852 (Ga. Laws 1851-52, p. 419).
Maps
Size of County (Total
Area): 357.6 square miles
County Rank in Total
Area: 76th out of 159
Population:
Gordon County
City of Calhoun
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