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Hall County,
Georgia History
from: The Story of Georgia and the Georgia People 1732 to 1860
by George Gillman Smith, D. D.
Originally published c. 1901
Submitted by K. Torp, ©2007
HALL.
Hall county was laid off in 1818, and named in honor of Lyman Hall. It was very rapidly settled by a class of worthy
but poor people.
The land is not generally fertile, but most of it repaid the tiller’s toil, and there are some beautiful and productive
farms on the creeks and on the Oconee and Chattahoochee rivers.
It was, like Habersham, famous for the salubrity of its summer climate, and early drew to it a class of wealthy
people from the low-country, who fixed their summer homes in Gainesville. The celebrated New Holland springs and
the White Sulphur springs were excellent summer resorts near Gainesville, and when the Southern railway was built
Gainesville developed into an excellent market for the mountain counties bordering it, and became a place of large
trade. The manufacturing of shoes became a leading industry, to which has since been added the man ufacturing of
cotton.
It has been an educational center, and the Gainesville Female College has become famous as a school for young women.
Gainesville has now grown into a city of considerable size, populated by a class of enterprising and intelligent
people, and has become the leading summer resort of the up-country.
The celebrated Glade mines are in this county. They were owned by Dr. Richard Banks for many years, and while working
the mines some beautiful diamonds were found which are still in the family of Dr. Banks. The mines are now owned
by a northern company.
Dr. Richard Banks was long a citizen of this county. He was a member of that distinguished family who sprang from
Ralph Banks, one of the first settlers of Elbert county, and was long noted for his sterling worth and his tender
philanthropy.
The celebrated banker, Richard T. Wilson of New York, began his life in this county as the son of a Scotch tanner,
and made his first money as a boy on a Hall county farm.
The religious character of the people has always been good, the Methodists and Baptists being the leading de nominations.
The villages of Flowery Branch and Belton, considerable little hamlets, are in this county.
The city of Gainesville, with its handsome court-house and its neat churches and handsome private residences, as
well as its well-built stores, is the most important point of northeast Georgia.
The population of Hall as early as 1830 was nearly twelve thousand, but in 1850 eight thousand seven hundred and
thirteen.
The first settlers of this county as given by Mr. White were: W. H. Dickson, E. Dunnegan, Jos. Wilson, John Bates,
B. Reynolds, R. Armour, Jos. Gailey, T. Terrell, John Miller, D. Wofford, M. Moore, W. Blake, Jos. Read, R. Young,
J. McConnell, R. Wurm, Thos. Wilson, William Cobb, Joseph Johnson, John Barnet, E. Cowen, A. Thomson, Jesse Dobbs,
James Abercrombie, Solomon Peake, Richard Banks, Wm. Cotter.
©2007 Genealogy Trails
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