Hart County State Historical Marker

Located on Hart County Courthouse Square

(Text)

 

HART COUNTY

 

Hart County was created by the Legislature on Dec. 7, 1853 out of

portions of Franklin and Elbert counties. It is the only county in

Georgia named for a woman -- Nancy Hart.

 

Nancy Hart and her husband, Benjamin Hart, obtained a 400 acre

grant 25 miles S.E. from Hartwell in Colonial days and erected a log

cabin home. During the Revolution War six Tories forced their way

into the Hart home and demanded that Nancy cook a meal for them.

She started cooking an old turkey, meanwhile sending her daughter

to the spring to blow a conch shell for help. Detected slipping the

third tory rifle through a crack in the wall, Nancy killed one of the

Tories and wounded another. Hart and several neighbors, coming to her

rescue, wanted to shoot the five surviving Tories but Nancy insisted

that they be hanged, and they were. Tradition has it that Nancy

Hart served as a spy for Gen. Elijah Clarke, sometimes disguised

as a man. The Indians respectfully called Nancy Hart "War Woman,"

giving that name to a creek adjacent to her cabin, which is memo-

rialized in a State Park on State Highway Route 17.

 

Hart County's first officers elected in Feb. 1854 were Inferior Court

Justices Henry F. Chandler, Micajah Carter, Clayton S. Webb, Daniel

M. Johnson, James V. Richardson; Inferior Court Clerk Frederic C.

Stephenson. Ordinary James T. Jones. Superior Court Clerk Burrell

Mitchell. Sheriff William Myers. Tax Receiver W.C. Davis. Tax Collec-

tor Richard Shirley. Surveyor John A. Cameron. Cornoer Richmond

Skelton and Treasurer Samuel White.

 

073-4 GEORGIA HISTORICAL COMMISSION 1955

© Carl Vinson Institute of Government, The University of Georgia

Go to Georgia Historic Markers web site

Go to Hart County Courthouse page

This page has been accessed times from sites outside the Institute since May 30, 2000. This page was last modified on .