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Other Information:
It is not known what served as Dade County courthouse after the
county's creation on Christmas Day of 1837. Usually, when the
General Assembly created a new county it provided for an inferior
court or a special commission with power to select a site and
contract for building a county courthouse. However, the legislation
creating Dade County was silent on a courthouse. Often, officials
and judges of a new county initially met in private homes or
utilized Masonic lodges or other buildings for county business.
Although one source says that Dade County's first courthouse
was built in Trenton in 1849, likely the first courthouse was
constructed earlier. Whenever built, the first courthouse burned
in April 1853, and the legislature appropriated $1,200 to help
the county build a new courthouse (Ga. Laws 1853-54, p. 156).
At some point thereafter, a new courthouse was built -- but this
was burned by Union troops in November 1863 in connection with
the Chattanooga campaign. It is not clear what Dade County used
for the next six years, but in 1869 a new courthouse was constructed.
While a plaque at the present courthouse indicates that the 1869
courthouse burned in 1895, local newspaper articles document
that the 1869 courthouse was used until torn down in 1925 to
make way for a new courthouse. Dade County's fourth and present
courthouse was built in 1926. More recently, the Dade County
Justice Building (see
photo) a block west of the old courthouse, was completed
in 1989. The largest county government facility is the Dade County
Administrative Building (see
photo) adjacent to the justice building, constructed in 2000-2001.
Today, the superior court, district attorney, and state probation
office remain in the old Dade County courthouse, with other judicial
and law enforcement offices in the Justice Building,
County Courthouse Historical
Marker: Click
here
County History:
Dade County was created on Dec. 25, 1837, by an act of the General
Assembly (Ga. Laws 1837, p. 65). Created entirely from Walker
County, Dade County's original boundaries were specified as:
. . . That from and immediately after the passage of this
act, the Inferior Court of the county of Walker, shall be authorized
and required to cause to be ran and plainly marked a line as
hereinafter designated, beginning at Lot one, in the ninth
District of the fourth section, originally Cherokee now Walker
county, thence a south west direction for its general course,
so as to run as near as possible on the middle on the top of
the Look Out Mountain, until it strikes the line of the State
of Alabama, at or near Lot No. one hundred and forty-five (145,)
in the eighteenth (18) district of the fourth section, and
all that portion of said county lying west of and north west
of the aforesaid line, shall constitute a new county, to be
called Dade.
Georgia's 92nd county was named for U.S. Army Maj. Francis Dade (1793-1835), a Virginian who was stationed in central
Florida to help enforce the treaty that ended the First Seminole
War. In Dec. 1835, a group of militant Seminoles angry about
the treaty ambushed Dade's detachment on the trail, killing Dade
and all but three of his 108 men. Nationally, the attack was
viewed as a massacre and resulted in the U.S. launching the Second Seminole War.
County Seat:
The legislation creating Dade County made no provision for a
county seat. In an act of Dec. 21, 1839, the General Assembly
designated the community of Salem as county seat and incorporated
it as a town (Ga. Laws 1839, p. 212). The origin of Salem's name
is unclear, but it apparently was first settled around 1830.
In 1840, the legislature changed the name of Salem to Trenton
(Ga. Laws 1840, p. 36). Reportedly, the name change was requested
by local leaders in response to a delegation of businessmen from
Trenton, New Jersey, who came to the area interested in developing
Dade County's coal and iron resources.
Maps
Size of County (Total
Area): 174.1 square miles
County Rank in Total
Area: 149th out of 159
Population:
Dade County
City of Trenton
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