Bartow County, GA

"Old Cassville, in thy early days, the Indian of the wood, Amid thy tall and stately oaks, in buckskin garments stood; By nature, they were savages, but 'twas not by their hands— Dear* Cassville stands a monument of far more savage hands!" Mrs. J. D. Carpenter, in The Standard, 1867.

When the county was created in 1832, Cassville was the name given to the county seat and the town was laid out in July, 1833. As the seat of justice and the home of prominent lawyers in the Cherokee circuit, it soon became populous. A brick court house and jail were erected by 1837 or before 1849, and the town was built around the court house square as are so many of our southern towns.

It was incorporated by an act of the legislature in December, 1843, with Samuel Morgan, William Latimer, Thomas A. Sullivan, George B. Russell and Julius M. Patton appointed as town commissioners.

By 1849 Cassville was the largest and most prosperous town in Cherokee Georgia. Letters addressed to Rome, Ga., were directed "via Cassville". There were 4 hotels: Brown & Dyer, kept by Higgs; Cassville Hotel, kept by John Terrell; Eagle Hotel, kept by Aaron Burris; and the Latimer Hotel, kept by William Latimer. Leading merchants were George S. Black, T. A. Sullivan & John A. Erwin, J. D. Carpenter, Fain & Fain, Sam Levy, John W. Burke, insurance and bookstore, Patton & Chunn, Humphrey W. Cobb, and George Upshaw. There was a Baptist, a Methodist, a Presbyterian and an Episcopal church.

During the construction of the State Railroad, tradition has it that the Cassville citizens did not want their town demoralized—nor their horses frightened—by having a railroad through the town. The colleges were advertised with that as a crowning merit. Later they mooted the idea of a branch going through Cassville via Fairmount and Gainesville. J. H. Johnston in his history of the "Western and Atlantic Railroad", 1932*, states that, "The original surveys of the Western and Atlantic Railroad developed the fact that it was practicable to build the line through Cassville, then one of the most flourishing towns in Northern Georgia. The citizens of Cassville finally succeeded in getting the legislature to pass an act§ providing for an alternate route via the town, leaving the Western and Atlantic above Cartersville and again intersecting it at some point south of Kingston; and also requiring the citizens of Cassville to bear all expense connected with the surveys and cost of constructing the new route. There is nothing in the records to show what was done in the matter, but evidently the people of Cassville found that the cost of the project would be far greater than they would be justified in assuming."*

When the name of the county was changed by an act of legislature in 1861, Cassville was changed to Manassas in honor of the victory gained there. In the December session, recorded in the journal of the house, there is the resolution of Mr. Sheats to change the name and for the postmaster general of the Confederate States to be notified of the change, and the governor was requested to forward the resolution to the postmaster general of the Confederate States. Naturally, the Federal postal authorities never recognized the name of Manassas and the name of Cassville was retained.

This change in name is said to have been the reason for the utter destruction of Cassville in 1864. Another reason was that Federal prisoners saw some young ladies wave a black flag as they passed through the town. The official reason was to eradicate the giving of enemy information in the home of rebels. On the day of the. entry of the Federals, May 19th, the home of Col. Warren Akin was burned. On October 12th, the Male and Female Colleges and the homes of President Rambaut and Judge Nathan Land were burned. On the 5th of November, the 5th Ohio Regiment with 300 cavalrymen set fire to the remainder of Cassville, leaving the churches and a few homes that were used as hospitals.

After the war it never regained its population nor prominence. When the court house was moved to Cartersville, many of the citizens removed to Cartersville. Cassville has been romantically described in poems and speeches, as: "Though the old town is but a memory, it is like the shattered vase in which the bouquet of roses has been garnered, there is a faint but lingering sweetness of the good old times."

When the colleges were incorporated in 1853, Cassville restricted the sale of intoxicants; and again by an act of legislature in 1875 had the sale of liquor restricted, thus becoming one of the first towns in Georgia to adopt such measures.

The city and Confederate cemetery is at Cassville.

About 5 miles north of the present Adairsville site was Oothcalooga village. The name was taken from the Indian name of the stream that runs through the valley.

Here lived the petty chiefs of the village. White in his ''Historical Collections" states, "Oothcaloga was the residence of the Adairs. It was sparsely inhabited but the Indians here lived better than in any other part of the nation." The Adairs were the descendents of some Scotch adventurers who settled among the Cherokees, married into their families, and by the time the Cherokee country was ceded to the U. S., they were prominent representatives of the nation. They went by the name of Red Watt and Black Watt to distinguish from each other. Oothcalooga valley was called the "garden spot of the Cherokee country" by the pioneers who settled in it.

After the Indians left, a little settlement, with a store or two about 2 miles north of the present town, was called Adairsville in compliment to the Scotch Cherokee chiefs who had been friendly to the whites. Hodge & Bailey had a store there in 1837 and it fronted a large section of cleared land. A ledger, kept by the young bookkeeper, Augustus C. Trimble, is still in the possession of the Trimble family—whites and Indians are listed on the credit side of the ledger.

During the building of the State Railroad, Governor Towns intended Adairsville to be the terminus of the road and had built large machine shops on the site where the present town grew and absorbed the name and function of the above village. Adairsville was then exactly half-way between what is now Atlanta and Chattanooga. It was incorporated in February, 1854, with D. A. Crawford, Joseph L. Neel, H. G. Lawrence, A. C. Trimble and John W. Parrott appointed as town commis-sioners. There were amendments to the town charters in August, 1872; October, 1887; December, 1901, and August, 1907. The public school system was established in 1909.

The town was not totally destroyed during the Civil War. Skirmishes were frequent on the roadway. In 1864, when the Federals were known to be approaching, a gun factory in the town was removed to Cuthbert, Ga.

A little hamlet grew up where the railroad underpass is now below Cartersville, and was called "Birmingham" by the Englishmen who came through this section in 1832. Only one Englishman and his son remained to see this hamlet grow—David Lewis, who fought in the War of 1812 and is buried in the old Friendship cemetery, and one of his sons, Nathaniel Deery Lewis, b. in 1818 in Hereford, England. He was only 14 years of age then and later he returned to England to see the coronation of Queen Victoria. On his return to Birmingham, he established a blacksmith's shop, being a wheel-wright by trade, and ran a stage route between Rome and "Marthasville". He died in Sandersville, Miss. Of his 5 children, Mary, who married Seab Hicks of Cartersville, is the only living child in the county.

One day Col. Farish Carter, who lived at Carter's Quarters on the Tennessee road and traveled from there to Milledgeville frequently, stopped to see Mr. Lewis and jestingly suggested that he change the name of Birmingham to Cartersville for him. Mr. Lewis told Col. Carter he thought the town would grow further up the road and told him to tell the few settlers that were there about it. Col. Carter, still jesting, did so, and Cartersville became the name of the town which later was to become the county site and the largest town in the county. Much of the property upon which the city grew was owned by Joseph J. Hamilton, whose family is identified with Floyd county.

It was incorporated in February 1850*, with R. H. Cannon, W. W. Leak, Wm. H. Puckett, J. F. Sproull and Coleman Pitts appointed as town commissioners. Its population in 1849 was 150. Four or five stores and one hotel.

In 1864 the town was almost completely demolished by fire of the Federal soldiers. Only 2 business houses survived. The present homes of Mrs. Lydia Tumlin and Mrs. Samuel F. Milam were among the few houses left standing. The former home was used as a post office and Federal headquarters, and officers occupied the Milam home. By 1866, 20 new business houses were built and though natural fires have wrecked property, a steady but slow growth has been evident year by year. Before the war the main part and majority of business houses were on the east side of the railroad.

In August, 1872, it was incorporated as a city with a mayor and aldermen to constitute a quorum. A bill to change the name to "Etowah City" was protested by Mark A. Cooper, who claimed that there was already a renowned town by the name of Etowah and it had been a post office for 20 years.

Paving of the city streets in 1925 has changed the appearance from a town to a city. Its population in 1920 was 4,350. In 1930 it was 5,250.

This was called Stegall's Station until in 1889 it was incorporated with the name of Emerson, in honor of Ex-Governor Joseph Emerson Brown. It was a mining center for many years and boasted a three-story frame hotel. It was a station on the railroad. There are Methodist and Baptist churches, consolidated school, and cemetery. In 1889 the city of Emerson was surveyed, by H. J. McCormick, with the street names of Minnesota, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia, Florida and Vermont running east and west; First, Second and Third streets running north and south.

This little village was first called Burge's Mills. Several grain mills had been built on the creek on the south of the village as early as 1844. Because of the fertility of the soil, many farmers settled in and around Euharlee.

In 1852 it was incorporated as Euharleyville with Thomas W. Brandon, E. B. Presley, Leonard Morgan, Allen Dykes and B. D. Dykes as town commissioners.

In 1870 it was incorporated with the name of Euharlee, the academy being in the center, and with Dr. Franklin R. Calhoun, Elihu G. Nelson and Thomas Tumlin as commissioners. The town has never grown to any size. Most of the community life revolves around the school and church activities. There are Presbyterian and Baptist churches.

Before vandalism destroyed its forest, Kingston was beautifully situated with dense forests forming a background and two streams—Two Run and Connesena— named in honor of Indian chiefs, marking its distant boundaries.

It was named in honor of Judge John Pendleton King, of Augusta, a noted lawyer, a personal friend of LaFayette, U. S. senator and Georgia senator, and a railroad financier.

It had a reputation of being very wicked, but by 1852 was reported as "improving in morals".

Prior to the building of the railroad, the stage coach route passed through the town and the hotels and the spring there were well patronized.

In December, 1849, the Memphis Branch railroad from Kingston to Rome, Ga., was opened for business, and this made Kingston an important point as distributor on the W. & A. and in connection with transportation on the Coosa river. There was a large stone depot on the railroad.

Kingston was also a cotton market and summer resort. There were 40 business houses—and most of them were on the west side of the railroad; four churches; four hotels—one was owned and managed by the widow of Dr. Mark Johnston (b. May 4, 1801, d. Dec. 11, 1851); one by Thomas R. Couche (b. Mar. 31, 1827, d. Aug. 19, 1873); one by Mrs. Millie Huson and one by a Mr. McCrary. The site of the Johnston hotel is the present home of Irby Sheats and on the adjoining lot was the Wayside Home during the Civil War. The population in 1849 was 100.

During the Civil War, Kingston was a supply and hospital center, due to its location on the railroad, and was headquarters for the Federal army from May to November, 1864. Most of the houses were destroyed during this time.

In 1866 Kingston was offered by a committee, with Mark A. Hardin as chairman, as an eligible site for the Georgia Orphans Home.

It was incorporated in 1869, with a town council composed of L. M. Gillam, T. F. Towers, C. N. Mayson, T. R. Couche, and M. McMurry.

Though it has been a place "where you change cars", Kingston has honored the past and can proudly claim over 250 unknown soldiers buried in the town cemetery.

A community grew along the Alabama road which became a settlement of prominent farmers who believed in schools and churches.

The community life finally grew around an academy that was the center of a thriving interest. The village proper has always been scattered.

It was called "Stilesborough" in honor of one of its prominent neighbors, William H. Stiles, and was incorporated by the name of Stilesboro in March, 1866*, with John T. Sproull, Larkin Floyd, W. O. Bowler, as "a body corporate and politic and the name and style of the Town Council of Stilesboro." The corporate limits extended one mile in every direction from the Stilesboro Academy, and the commissioners had power and author-ity to grant licenses to retail spiritous liquors under such rules as were incident to incorporated towns and cities. In 1870 a road was surveyed from the academy to the depot and later opened on property belonging to Dr. S. F. Stephens, and E. T. and J. R. Henderson.

The town proper is on the branch of the Seaboard Air Line. It has never grown to any size. It was a cotton market at one time, but now there are only one or two stores.

Sherman's route from Kingston to Dallas followed through Stilesboro. Many homes were saved, it is said, on account of the Masonic emblem attached to doorways. The academy was used by the Federal soldiers and property damage was done by the usage of desks and benches as feed troughs.

After the Civil War the community which grew into the town of Taylorsville developed, but was not officially incorporated until 1916. J. W. Kennedy was mayor, W. M. Dorsey and W. D. Trippe were aldermen.

The town was surveyed by a Mr. Taylor and named for him about 1869, or 1870, on property belonging to Thomas Ausley and Israel P. Davis of Polk county. Mr. Ausley came here from Dallas and was probably the first mayor. No record can be found of the date of incorporation. The first house was built by John Louder-milk, east of the present town. Some of the first mer-chants were J. M. Smith, Sr., and Rowan Hanie.

As a lumber and agricultural center it attracted many settlers. When a narrow gauge railroad was built from Cedartown by A. G. West, a turning table was erected near the center of the business section. As the old Cartersville and Van Wert railroad grew into the present Seaboard, Taylorsville has had railroad connections with the outside world. The town cemetery lies partly in Polk county and Israel P. Davis was the first to be buried in thai} portion, as he gave the land for it. The town has never grown to any size. There are Methodist and Baptist churches, a bank, a brick school house, post office, and stores.

This was a small community on the L. & N. railroad and the Tennessee road, and was not incorporated until August, 1919. Dr. W. B. Vaughan was appointed mayor with J. W. Tierce, J. T. Peace, L. G. Hughes, W. R. White, aldermen.

Allatoona:  a station on the W. & A. railroad, takes its name from the creek, which runs near the village, the Indians named in their day of occupation. Gold has been mined here since the 30's.  Here was fought a sanguinary battle on October 5th, 1864, and the house used as a hospital is yet standing with marks of bullet holes still visible.

Atco: derived from the name of the American Textile Company, is one of the most modern mill towns in the South. It is a flag station on the W. & A. rail-road and has a post office. It is now under the manage-ment of the Goodyear Company.

Bartow: a small mining settlement below Emer-son on the W. & A. railroad.

Bolivar: a flag station on the L. & N. railroad.

Cass Station: once considered a site for the county seat, is now a flag station on the W. & A. railroad. Bethel Quillian and Tom McKelvey operate the only large store. There is a post office.

Corbin: is named for John Corbin* who came from North Carolina to this county in 1849 and settled on Stamp creek. A school house is the most important structure now.

Cave: a flag station on the W. & A. railroad south of Kingston.

Cement: an abandoned site.

Ferrobutte, (Railroad name Rogers Station), is on the Western & Atlantic railroad a short distance north of Cartersville.  It has a money order postoffice and is a local trading post, with a population of 40 in 1900.
[Source: Georgia: Sketches, Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions & People, Vol. 2, Publ. 1906 Transcribed By:  Maggie Coleman]

Flexatile: a mining settlement on the Tennessee road.

Folsom: a small village of stores and houses in the 6th district.
Folsom, a village of Bartow county, is located about six miles northeast of Adairsville, which is the nearest railway station.  It has a money order postoffice, and some stores which do a good local business.  The population in 1900 was 76.
[Source: Georgia: Sketches, Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions & People, Vol. 2, Publ. 1906 Transcribed By:  Maggie Coleman]

Ford, a little village of Bartow county, is about five miles southwest of Kingston and not far from the Etowah river.  It has a money order postoffice and is a trading center for the neighborhood.
[Source: Georgia: Sketches, Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions & People, Vol. 2, Publ. 1906 Transcribed By:  Maggie Coleman]

Five Forks: is in the 5th district and has a grist mill, filling station and houses.

Grassdale: in the 5th district, was an old community of pioneer families. Some parts of this section are called Sophia and Little Prairie. Nothing left of any settlement now, except scattered farms and houses.

Halls Station: a station on the W. & A. railroad; it is called Linwood as a post office.

Ladds: a shipping station on the Seaboard for the Ladd Lime and Stone Company.

Ligon: a small community on the old Chulio road to Rome, takes its name from "Red" Ligon, who lived there in the 17th district

Linwood, a post-village of Bartow county, is on the Western and Atlantic railroad a few miles north of Kingston, and is known also by the name Hall’s Station. A town of the same name in Walker county was incorporated by act of legislature on Dec. 18, 1901.
(Source: Georgia Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions, and Persons, VOL II, by Candler & Evans, Publ. 1906. Transcribed by Joanne Morgan)

Malbone, a post-village of Bartow county, is near the Etowah river, about half-way between Cartersville and Stilesboro, which are the nearest railroad stations.
(Source: Georgia Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions, and Persons, VOL II, by Candler & Evans, Publ. 1906. Transcribed by Kim Mohler)

Pine Log: near Rydal, takes its name from the Pine Log mountain and is the largest village community in the county.

Rydal: a station on the L. & N. railroad and a post office.
Source: The history of Bartow County : formerly Cass. Cartersville, Ga.: Cunyus, Lucy Josephine Printed by Tribune Pub. Co., c1933.

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