Lumpkin county, was laid out from Cherokee, and organized in 1832.  It was named for Hon. Wilson Lumpkin and is bounded on the north and northwest by Union county, on the east by White, on the southeast by Hall, and on the southwest by Dawson and on the west by Dawson and Fannin.  It is watered by the Etowah, Chestatee, and Tesnatee rivers and a number of smaller streams.  The Blue Ridge runs through the county from northeast to southwest.  The soil is fertile, especially along the rivers, and is easily cultivated, sweet and Irish potatoes, wheat and sorghum being the principle productions.  Apples do well on the rich hillsides and are of a fine flavor.  Peaches, pears and quinces are also raised.  The county lies in the gold belt, some of the mines having been worked for years.  The Singleton mine, near Dahlonega, and the Calhoun on the Chestatee have yielded great quantities of gold.  The famous lot, No. 1,052, which created such a sensation among gold seekers in the ‘30s, is on the Yahoola creek.  Immediately east of the town of Dahlonega is a long and high range of hills, extending many miles to the southwest, which forms the axis of the gold belt, being literally scarred with prospector’s pits, cuts and tunnels. In numerous places streams have been diverted from their natural channels in order that the alluvium and gravel in their beds might be washed in the search for gold.  Dahlonega is the county seat.  The schools of the county are good, and a branch of the University of Georgia has been established at Dahlonega.  The county is without railroad facilities.  The population in 1900 was 7,433 a gain of 566 since 1890.  On Sept. 15, 1864, a skirmish took place in Lumpkin county, between the Federal and Confederate forces. 
(Source: Georgia Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions, and Persons, VOL II, by Candler & Evans, Publ. 1906. Transcribed by Joanne Morgan)

Freda, a post-hamlet of Lumpkin county, is about six miles northwest of Dahlonega.  The nearest railway station is Jasper, on the Atlanta, Knoxville & Northern road.
(Source: Georgia Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions, and Persons, VOL II, by Candler & Evans, Publ. 1906. Transcribed by Renae Donaldson)

Garland, a post-hamlet in the eastern part of Lumpkin county, is about fifteen miles from Lula, on the Southern railway, which is the nearest station.
(Source: Georgia Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions, and Persons, VOL II, by Candler & Evans, Publ. 1906. Transcribed by Renae Donaldson)

Gates, a post-hamlet in the gold regions of Lumpkin county, is located thirteen miles northeast of Dahlonega.  Alto, on the Southern railway, is the nearest station.
(Georgia: Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions, and Persons, Arranged in Cyclopedic Form. VOL III Publ. 1906. Transcribed by Marilyn Clore)

Grace, a post-hamlet of Lumpkin county, is located a few miles from the White county line.  Bellton, on the Southern railroad, is the nearest station. 
(Georgia: Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions, and Persons, Arranged in Cyclopedic Form. VOL III Publ. 1906. Transcribed by Marilyn Clore)

Hedwig, a post-hamlet of Lumpkin county, is about five miles southwest of Dahlonega. The nearest railroad station is Jasper, on the Atlanta, Knoxville & Northern.
(Georgia: Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions, and Persons, Arranged in Cyclopedic Form. VOL III Publ. 1906. Transcribed by Angelia Carpenter)



Though the first discovery of gold in Georgia, according to White, was made on Duke's Creek, in Habersham County, in 1829, it is generally believed in Lumpkin County that the first discovery of gold in this state was made some time previous to the above date, on the Calhoun property, three miles to the south of Dahlonega. Prof. S. W. McCallie, Georgia's present state geologist, makes this remark in connection with the claim. Says  -  "This early discovery is substantiated by living witnesses; but whether it antedates the find at Duke's Creek is an open question. It appears quite probable that the early discoveries followed each other, in such rapid succession, that it is now practically impossible to decide definitely the question of priority. However, at present, the best information seems to be in favor of Duke's Creek." If not the place where the yellow metal was first discovered in Georgia, it very soon became the center of the greatest mining operations in Georgia; and the mines at Dahlonega contained the largest deposits of precious ore known to the United States.

It cannot be stated with any degree of precision when the Indian word "Dah-Ion-e-ga." was first coined; but the meaning of it is "yellow money." Whether it was first applied by the Indians to the place, or whether it was used by them merely as an expression which caught the fancy of the white is equally problematical. The discovery of gold In North Georgia operated as a spur to hasten the departure of the Cherokees toward the West. It created an eagerness on the part of he white population to possess themselves of the red man's home among the mountains, and they began to call upon the Government, in the most imperious tones, to redeem the old agreement of 1802. The complications of the following years were only the malarial symptoms of this same gold fever; and while the final outcome was divinely ordered in furtherance of wise ends, it was destined to leave a scar upon onr history which time has not effaced.

As soon as the removal of the Indians was accomplished, the United States Government, in 1838, established at Dahlonega a branch mint, which, continuing in operation, until 1861, coined 1,381,748 pieces of gold valued at $6,115,569.

Benjamin Parks, by whom the yellow metal was first discovered on what afterwards became the property of the great John C. Calhoun, of South Carolina, was still living in the neighborhood of Dahlonega as late as 1894. During the summer of this year, P. J. Moran. the famous staff correspondent and editor of the Atlanta Constitution, visited the gold fields of Lumpkin for the purpose of preparing an article for the press. Here he found Mr. Parks. The old man was ninety-four years of age, but his eyes still retained a glint of the old fire which lit them in his youthful days when he first discovered gold in the hills. The story  which he gave Mr. Moran is substantially reproduced from the newspaper files of 1894. Said the aged argonaut:

"It was just by accident that I came across it I was deer hunting one day, when I kicked up something which caught my eye. I examined it and decided that it was gold. The place belonged to Rev. Mr. Obarr, who, though a preacher, was a hard man and very desperate. I went to the owner and told him that I thought I could find gold on his place, if he would give me a lease of it.  He laughed, as though he did not believe me, and consented. So a lease for forty years was written out, the consideration of which was that I was to give him one-fourth of the gold mined. I took into partnership a friend in whom I could confide. I went over to the spot with a pan, and, turning over some earth, it looked like the yellow of an egg. It was more than my eyes could believe.

The news went abroad, within a few days it seemed aa if the whole world must have heard of it, for men came from every state. They came afoot, on horseback, and in wagons, acting more like crazy men than anything else. All the way, from where Dahlonega now stands to Nucklesville, there were men panning out of the branches and making holes in the hillsides. The saddest man in the country was preacher Obarr, from whom I had leased the land. He thought the lease was a joke; but he now learned that it was something serious. One day he came to me and said:

" Mr. Parks, I want your lease.

" But I will not sell it to you"  I replied.

" Why not!" he asked.

" Well,  I answered,  even if I were willing, it is now out of my power;  for I have taken a partner, and I know he would never consent to it   I have given him my word and I intend to keep it'

" You will suffer for this yet,"said Obarr menacingly, as he went away.

"Two weeks later, I saw a party of two women and two men approaching.   I knew it was Obarr's family, intent upon trouble. Knowing Obarr's fondness for litigation, I warned my men to be prepared for action, but to take no offensive step.

" Mr. Parks,  were Obarr's first words, 'I want the mine

"If you were to offer me ten times its value,' I replied, 'I would not sell it to you.'

" Well, the longest pole will knock off the persimmon,' said he with an implied threat

"At the same moment, Mrs. Obarr broke the sluice-gate to let out the water. There was a laborer in the ditch, and the woman threw rocks in the water, in order to splash him. Failing to make the man aggressive, she burst into tears; whereupon her son advanced to attack him. I caught him by the collar and flung him back. Then the party went off, swore out warrants against us, and had us all arrested. This was all done for intimidation, but it failed to work. The next thing I heard was that Obarr had sold the place to Judge Underwood, who, in turn, sold it to Senator John C. Calhoun, of South Carolina. Then I lost my fortune. Senator Calhoun wanted to buy my lease, and I sold it  for what I thought was a good price. The very month after the sale, he took out 24,000 pennyweights of gold, and then I was inclined to be as mad with him as Obarr was with me. But gold mining is like gambling—all luck."

According to the late Prof. W. S. Yeates, who was at one tunc state geologist of Georgia, an expression which Mark Twain has made classic in two hemispheres originated at Dahlonega. Says Professor Yeates: "One of the most active and enthusiastic spirits of the flush times was Dr. M. F. Stevenson, an amateur geologist and mineralogist, who was full of the belief that Georgia was one of the richest mineral States in the Union. When, in 1849, the miners around Dahlonega gathered to take action on the project of deserting the mines in Georgia and going in a body to the new fields of California, this earnest believer in Georgia's great mineral wealth mounted the court-house steps in Dahlonega, and, addressing a crowd of about 200 miners, plead with them not to be turned by the stories of the wondrous discoveries in California, but to stick to the Georgia fields, which were rich in possibilities. Pointing to Findley Ridge, which lay about half a mile to the south, he exclaimed: '"Why go to California? In that ridge lies more gold than man ever dreamt of. There's millions in it.  This last sentence was caught up by the miners and taken with them to California, where for years it was a by-word among them. It remained for Mark Twain, who heard it in common use, in one of the mining camps of California, to broadcast it over creation by placing it in the mouth of his worldrenowned character, Colonel Mulberry Sellers."


According to the testimony of not a few residents in this neighborhood, some of whom have pasted the patriarchal limit of four-score years, gold was found in Lumpkin County prior to the date given for its discovery in White County, on Duke's Creek, in 1828.  Mr. Reese Crisson. one of the  best-known of the practical miners who came to Dahlonega in the early days, was heard to say on more than one occasion that when he came to Dahlonoga, in the above-named year, it was some time after tho discovery of gold in this neighborhood. Mr. Joseph Edwards, a man of solid worth, still living at a ripe old age near Dahlonega, corroborates this statement.   Healso was one of the early miners; and, on the authority of Mr. Edwards, gold had been discovered in Lumpkin for some time when he came to Dahlonega in 1828. At any rate, the discovery of gold brought an influx of white population into Cherokee Georgia, some mere adventurers, some possessed of the restless spirit of discontent, ever on the lookout for something strange and new, but most of them men of high character, anxious to develop the rich treasures hidden in the hills of this beautiful section of Georgia. The Indians were still here and must have known of the gold deposit*, though perhaps ignorant of their value; hence the name "Taloneka," signifying "yellow metal."

In 1836 the United States Mint was established at Dahlonega. Skilled workmen were brought from Philadelphia to put the mint into operation; and among the number who came at this time was the Rev. David Hastings, a Presbyterian minister, whose cultured family imparted a tone of refinement to the rough mining camp and  formed the beginning of Dahlonega's social and intellectual life. His grand-daughter, Miss Lida Fields, was a noted educator, whose popular history of the United States is still a standard text-book in the public schools. Gov. Allen D. Candler, one of Georgia's  most distinguished son, was born near the old mint,  

A standard history of Georgia and Georgians, Volume 1 By Lucian Lamar Knight  1917 Dahlonega  (The center of gold mining activities)   Chapter 16 Pg 561
Transcribed and Contributed by Christine Walters