|
 |
Gordon County was created on Feb. 13, 1850 by an act of the
General Assembly (Ga. Laws 1849-50, p. 124). The new county was
formed from portions of Cass (later renamed Bartow) and Floyd
counties. All lands that would become Gordon County were originally
occupied by the Cherokee Indians -- and, in fact, the area was
home of New Echota, capital of the Cherokee Nation. Even while
Cherokees remained on their homeland, the Georgia General Assembly
enacted legislation in Dec. 1830 that provided for surveying
the Cherokee Nation (see
map) in Georgia and dividing it into sections, districts,
and land lots (see
map). Subsequently, the legislature identified this entire
area as "Cherokee County" (even though it never functioned
as a county). An act of Dec. 3, 1832 divided the Cherokee lands
into ten new counties -- Cass (later renamed Bartow), Cherokee,
Cobb, Floyd, Forsyth, Gilmer, Lumpkin, Murray, Paulding, and
Union. Cherokee lands were distributed to whites in a land lottery,
but the legislature temporarily prohibited whites from taking
possession of lots on which Cherokees still lived.
It was not until Dec. 29, 1835 that Georgia had an official
basis for claiming the unceded Cherokee lands that included the
future location of Gordon County. In the Treaty
of New Echota, a faction of the Cherokees agreed to give
up all Cherokee claims to land in Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee,
and North Carolina and move west in return for $5 million. Though
a majority of Cherokees opposed the treaty and refused to leave,
the U.S. and Georgia considered it binding. In 1838, U.S. Army
troops rounded up the last of 15,000 Cherokees in Georgia and
forced them to march west in what came to be known as the "Trail
of Tears."
Gordon County's original 1850 boundaries (see
legal description) were changed numerous times between 1852
to 1877, during which time the legislature transferred portions
of Cass (Bartow), Floyd, Murray, Pickens, and Walker counties
to Gordon County, while transferring land from Gordon to Floyd
and Murray counties.
Georgia's 94th county was named for William Washington Gordon (1796-1842), the first Georgian to graduate from West Point and
first president of the Central of Georgia Railroad. [Click here
to view a monument to William Gordon in Savannah.]
-
- 1855
-
- 1863
-
- 1864
-
- 1865
-
- 1874
-
- 1883
-
- 1885a
-
- 1885b
-
- 1895
-
- 1899
-
- 1904
-
- 1910
-
- 1915
-
- 1952
-
- 1955
-
- 1970a
-
- 1970b
-
- 1999
-
- 2001a
-
- 2001b
|
