The accompanying map was drawn by Capt. Henry J. McCormick, one of the county surveyors, and is known as the Cherokee Purchase. Originally Cherokee county, it is now Bartow, Catoosa, Chattooga, Cherokee, Cobb, Dade, Dawson, Fannin, Floyd, Forsyth, Gilmer, Gordon, Haralson, Lumpkin, Milton, Murray, Paulding, Pickens, Polk, Towns, Union, Walker and Whitfield counties.

In 1831 Cherokee Georgia was surveyed by order of the governor into four sections, and these sections were laid off into land districts nine miles square. Thirty-three districts, in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th sections, were laid off into 40-acre lots, called "Gold Lots" because of the possibility of their containing gold. Sixty districts were laid off into 160-acre lots, called "Land Lots" to distinguish from the "Gold Lots".

These lots totaled fifty-four thousand. Due to errors in the original surveys, there were fractional lots, and because it was difficult to survey accurately the 40-acre and 160-acre lots, the grant was always printed, "more or less". Some of the lots were never applied for and became known as "Wild Land".

The State issued a plat and grant to the drawee, with the great seal of the State attached to it, for a fee ranging from $3 to $18. In S. G. McLendon's "History of the Public Domain of Georgia"* is this statement: "Grants for Cherokee lands under the Land Lottery of 1830 and its amendments, and the Gold Lottery of 1831, and the subsequent Fraction Lottery, paid $18 for whole or fractional lots; and $10 for gold lots or fractions, to be taken out within five years from the drawing. The Land and Gold Lotteries were drawn in the winter of 1832-3, and the fractions in the ensuing December. A resolution of December 1823 (Vol. IV, p. 35 of Recs.) prescribed the fees ($4.50) on fractions sold by the State. —Prince's Digest, p. 568."

By an act of the legislature in 1831, persons qualified to one draw in the Gold Land Lottery were: white males above 18 years of age having been within the organized limits of the State 3 years, preceding January 1st, 1832; all widows with like residence; all families of orphans under 18 years of age of like residence, except those that drew whose fathers were dead (an act had provided that a family of more than 2 orphans should have 2 draws); all heads of families one additional draw in consideration of the number in the family; all widows of like residence whose husbands were killed or died in service of their country, or on their return march from wars with Great Britain or the Indians; all orphans of soldiers; and every deaf, dumb, and blind person of 3 years residence.

By acts of the legislature time was extended for the fortunate drawees to take out their grants. In 1843 it was provided that grants had to be taken before October, 1844, or they were forfeited and reverted to the State. Many of the grants were sold and re-sold.

Bartow county, or Cass, was made up of the 17th, 4th, and one-half of the 21st districts, containing 40-acre lots, "more or less", and the 16th, 5th, one-half of the 22nd, lower half of the 15th, 6th, and one-half of the 23rd districts, containing 160-acre lots, "more or less". The lots were distributed by the lottery system.

Many people in the county have preserved the original land grants that came into their hands through transactions of real estate. The following case is an example:

In Smith's "Cherokee Land Lottery" of 1838, page 197, is found in the 5th district, 3rd section:

"195, Zachariah Hopson, sol., Marsh's, Thomas."

"195" is the lot number; "sol." is soldier; "Marsh's" is the captain's district; "Thomas" is the county of his residence in Georgia.

An uninterrupted chain of title of this lot No. 195 from the above grantee is as follows: A deed from Zachariah Hopson of Leon county, Fla., Sept. 25, 1833, to James J. Blackshear and Donald McClain of Thomas county, Ga., is recorded in the Cass county office of the clerk of the superior court in Book A of Deeds, page 304, March 5, 1835. On May 10, 1849, Donald McLean— spelled thusly in this deed—"bargained and quit-claimed" for the sum of one dollar this lot to Harriet Black-shear, Thomas E. Blackshear, and Mitchell B. Jones, administrators of the estate of James J. Blackshear, deceased, of Thomas county. This was recorded in the county clerk's office in Book K, page 598, on September 1, 1852. On September 2, 1857, the administrators of the estate of James J. Blackshear of Thomas county having advertised this lot for sale, Lewis ML Munford, of Cass county, bought it for $601. This deed was recorded in the clerk's office in Book N, page 584, October 7th, 1857.

On the lot was erected the Munford home and in the course of years, this lot, among others in the estate, has come from Lewis Martin Munford to his son, Lewis Sims Munford; and from L. S. Munford to a daughter, Mrs. Louis Munford Peeples; and from Mrs. Peeples to her children, Lewis Munford Peeples and Mary Peeples Daves.

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