Gilmer County was created from Cherokee County on Dec. 3, 1832 by an act of the General Assembly (Ga. Laws 1832, p. 56). [Click here for complete text of legislation.] According to that act:

". . . the fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, eleventh, twelfth and such parts of the twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth districts as lie east of a line commencing at the centre of the south line of the twenty-fourth, and running due north to the north line of the twenty-fifth, and so much of the twenty-sixth and twenty-seventh districts of said second section, as lies east of a range of mountains running north and south through said district, shall form and become one county, to be called Gilmer."

In way of background, by 1830, the Cherokee Nation consisted of most of northwest Georgia (see map), plus adjoining areas in Alabama, Tennessee, and North Carolina. Even while Cherokee Indians remained on their homeland in Georgia, the General Assembly on Dec. 21, 1830 enacted legislation claiming "all the Territory within the limits of Georgia, and now in the occupancy of the Cherokee tribe of Indians; and all other unlocated lands within the limits of this State, claimed as Creek land" (Ga. Laws 1830, p. 127). The act also provided for surveying the Cherokee lands in Georgia; dividing them into sections, districts, and land lots; and authorizing a lottery to distribute the land. On Dec. 26, 1831, the legislature designated all land in Georgia that lay west of the Chattahoochee River and north of Carroll county as "Cherokee County" (see map) and provided for its organization (Ga. Laws 1831, p. 74). However, the new county was not able to function as a county because of its size and the fact that Cherokee Indians still occupied portions of the land. On Dec. 3, 1832, the legislature added areas of Habersham and Hall counties to Cherokee County, and then divided the entire area into nine new counties -- Cass (later renamed Bartow), Cobb, Floyd, Forsyth, Gilmer, Lumpkin, Murray, Paulding, and Union -- plus a reconstituted and much smaller Cherokee County. 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. By 1833, however, whites began occupying areas of Gilmer County.

Georgia's 85th county was named for George R. Gilmer, who served two terms as Georgia governor (1829-1831, 1837-1839), as state legislator, and as U.S. congressman. Gilmer -- a strong proponent of state sovereignty over Cherokee lands in Georgia -- was governor at the time of the Cherokee's forced removal to the west.

As originally constituted, Gilmer County extended to the Tennessee border (see map). Later created in part or whole from its original boundaries were Pickens (1853), Fannin (1854), and Dawson (1857) counties.

Historical Maps

 

1832

 

1834

 

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1883

 

1885a

 

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1895

 

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1910

 

1915

 

1952

 

1955

 

1970a

 

1970b

 

1999

 

2001a

 

2001b

© Carl Vinson Institute of Government, University of Georgia

Go to Historical Atlas of Georgia Counties

Go to Gilmer County Courthouse page