Bartow County, originally known as Cass 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 the 1832 act :

". . . such parts of the twenty-first, twenty-second and twenty-third districts of the second section as lie west of the line herein-before designated, and the fourth, fifth, sixth, fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth districts of the third section, shall form and become one county, to be called Cass."

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.

Portions of Cass County were used to created Gordon County in 1850 (Ga. Laws 1849-50, p. 124).

Georgia's 87th county was named for Pres. Andrew Jackson's Secretary of War, Gen. Lewis Cass of Michigan. Later, Cass's abolitionist and pro-Union views made him unpopular in Georgia. Following the death of Col. Francis S. Bartow in the First Battle of Manassas (Bull Run), the General Assembly changed the name of Cass County to Bartow County on Dec. 6, 1861.

Historical Maps

 

1834

 

1839

 

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1885a

 

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1915

 

1952

 

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1970a

 

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1999

 

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2001b

Go to Historical Atlas of Georgia Counties

Go to Bartow County Courthouse page