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Gordon
County, Georgia
A Proud Member of the Genealogy
Trails Group
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Hello and welcome to the Genealogy Trails website for Gordon
County, Georgia.
This County is available for adoption.
Our goal at Genealogy Trails is to help
you track your ancestors through time and place by transcribing
genealogical and historical data and placing it online for the free use
of all researchers.
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Gordon County
was created on February 13, 1850 by an act of the Georgia General
Assembly. 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 General Assembly
enacted legislation in December 1830 that provided for surveying the
Cherokee Nation in Georgia and dividing it into sections, districts,
and land lots. Subsequently, the legislature identified this entire
area as "Cherokee County". An act of December 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 December 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 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 [source: wikipedia.org]
The county seat is Calhoun, Georgia
Cities and towns
Calhoun -- Fairmount --
Plainville -- Ranger -- Resaca
Red Bud -- Oakman -- Sugar Valley -- Oostanaula
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Online Data
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African American History
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Biographies
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Births
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Cemeteries
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Census
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Church Histories/Records
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County Records
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Court Records
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Deaths
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Family Bibles
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History
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Land Records
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Marriages
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Military
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Native American Data
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Newspaper Data
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Obituaries
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Wills/Probates
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Website
Updates:
Oct 2009:
East Damascus Church Cemetery Burials
Sep 2009: History and burials in Chandler, Fain, Russell, Resaca,
Harmony and Longstreet Cemeteries; African-American History; Cherokee
History; Story of Elias Boudinot and Harriet Gold; Cherokee Land
Lottery; African American Biographies; 1850 Slave Census Schedule
10 Jan 2008: MURRAY death notice, towns
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