Tid-bits

A Brief History of Carroll County, Georgia

Location of Carroll County

The City of Carrollton, Georgia is located 45 miles west of Atlanta on U.S. Highway 27, along the Georgia - Alabama Line. With gentle rolling hills, Carroll County has traditionally been classified as  part of Georgia’s Piedmont Region. However, in recent years the county has been made a part of Georgia's Highlands or  Blue Ridge Mountains Range. The county is actually located at the southern most end of the Appalachian highland which runs in a southwesterly direction across the eastern part of the the United States between the dying mountains and the Chattahoochee River.

Founding of the County

Carroll County was named for Charles Carroll of Carrollton, Maryland, the last living signer of the Declaration of Independence. The county seat of Carrollton was named for his home place, Carrollton Manor.  The county was created December 11, 1826 by the Georgia Legislature to include all the Creek Indian lands lying west of the Chattahoochee River, which included parts of present day Haralson, Douglas, Heard and Troup Counties. Their Scots-Creek leader, Chief William H.  McIntosh, Jr. was murdered and his home burned after he  signed treaties to sell the last remaining Indian lands to the white man in 1825. Elections were held at McIntosh Reserve to select the first county officers. The first Inferior Court convened on May 31, 1827, on Lot 115 in the Fifth Dist. at a site designated as the county seat. The county seat at Old Carrollton near Sand Hill was simply known as Carroll County Court House. During this time only one court session was held there and tradition says that the judge’s bench was a simple pine log.

Boundaries  Change

In the mean time, the county boundaries were changing. On Dec. 22, 1828, Campbell County was created partly from the eastern portion of Carroll County. In 1870, the part of Campbell taken from Carroll became Douglas County. On Dec. 22, 1830, all the land south of the current county boundary was formed into a new county named Heard County. In 1856, the northwest corner of Carroll County formed part of another new county, Haralson County. There have also been numerous smaller shifts in the county line.

Founding of Carrollton

By early March 1829, a new site for a county seat was pursued. On November 14, 1829, the justices selected Lot 128 in the Tenth District as the new county seat. The original name chosen was Troupsville, in honor of Gov. George M. Troup. However, the faction of Gov. Gilmer who controlled the state legislature at that time incorporated the new county seat under the name of Carrollton on December 22, 1829. The early removal of the county site required only a minimum of physical changes. Apparently, the only substantial building ever constructed at Old Carrollton was a log jail. In 1830, the jail was moved to the new county seat and reassembled on the west side of Rome Street.

Early Carrollton

Early Carrollton was essentially a Wild West-like town, a frontier village with an abundance of taverns, horse thieves, trading posts, and horse races.  Sanford Kingsbury raised racehorses on his farm, Oak Lawn, which still stands today on the far end of Rome Street. Originally, a racetrack was located on Longview Street in the 1800’s.  In the frontier days of the small town, a notorious band of horse thieves called the Pony Club wreaked havoc upon the locals. On Election Day 1832, two local vigilante groups known as the “Slicks” got into a fight on the town square with members of the Pony Club.  After some hand-to-hand fighting, these law-abiding citizens emerged victorious.

Carrollton at Turn of the Century

By the turn of the century, Carroll County was one of the leading cotton producing counties in the state and  Carrollton had become a center of cotton trade. As early as 1846,  Banning Mills, near the Chattahoochee River, offered an alternative to agricultural employment; and by 1890, Mandeville Mills in Carrollton was offering jobs to local residents.  In education, Carroll County could boast Bowdon College, the fourth college chartered in Georgia in 1856; and in 1906, Carrollton was chosen as the site for one of the twelve Agricultural and Mechanical schools in the state.  When  both Bowdon College and the state A& M school finally closed for good, a new college was established on the campus of the old A&M school. It was charted as a Junior College and named West Georgia. Today this college has grown to become The State University of West Georgia.

Villa Rica "City of Gold"

Villa Rica  the “City of Gold” was founded by a group of gold miners and their families who began their trek southward from Delaware, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey.  After three years of travel, in 1826, they found in the present city of Villa Rica the richest gold vein they had encountered.  Soon others came to the area and several taverns and trading posts sprang up in Gold Town (old Villa Rica).   As techniques for mining for gold improved, the richest vain was found at Pine Mountain, a site that became known as the Villa Rica Gold Mines.  With the coming of the railroad to the area, the town moved to new Villa Rica along the tracks. When gold mining became unprofitable, a new form of white gold was harvested known as cotton.

Bowdon

Bowdon is located on the western edge of the county along the Alabama-Georgia Line in what were the last Indian lands in Georgia ceded by the white man.  The new town was first named Cerro Gordo, in honor of troops from the area who fought there in Mexico against Santa Anna.  Thinking they lived in Alabama the people who lived in the area besought Alabama Congressman Franklin Welsh Bowdon to secure them a post office.  When the state line was resurveyed and the area found to actually be in Georgia the name of the town was changed to Bowdon. Charles A. McDaniel and John M. Richardson founded Bowdon College in 1857. The college was one of first four state chartered colleges in Georgia.  During the Civil War, the college closed temporarily as most schools did during the war. In 1936, the college closed for good and its faculty merged with West Georgia College in Carrollton.

Civil War

Carroll County apparently sent a larger percentage of men into Confederate Service than any other county in the state except Chatham County, despite the strong Unionist leaning of many of its residents.  Some of the first to enlist were local citizens and young men from Bowdon College. They formed Co. B, Cobb’s Legion “Bowdon Volunteers”.   While Carroll County  was spared a bloody battle, she did sustain four raids by Union Troops.  Moore’s covered bridge on the Chattahoochee River near Whitesburg  was burned by Union troops looking for a way to cross the River. During the last raid on Carrolton, 15 days after the surrender at Appomattox, union troops burned buildings on the northwest quadrant of the town square. As the home guard Tallapoosa Rangers came into town, they  were singing “Dixie”. Afterward, that road was renamed  DIXIE Street, the name it bears today.  There are over 800 Civil War veterans buried throughout the county. The local Sons of Confederate Veterans Camps decorate these graves each spring around Confederate Memorial Day, April 26.

Carroll County Today

Carroll County is truly at the crossroads of American progress; but working hard to preserve its rural-agricultural beauty. The northern half of the county along Interstate 20 in Villa Rica and Temple is quickly becoming a bedroom community for metropolitan Atlanta. In 2004, Carroll County became the 29th fastest growing county in the United States.  However, efforts are being made for the county’s southern half to retain its rural-agricultural heritage. Today, Carroll County has the most family owned farms of any county in the state. However, its farmers raise cows and chickens rather than cotton as in the past. Sustainable agriculture is also encouraged with the "Cotton Mill Farmer's Marker" open in the Spring and Summer for local sales. We invite you to visit Carroll County and to take time to explore our rich heritage and culture. Carrollton is the county seat.

The county seat marker, Confederate monument and the cornerstone from the former Victorian Courthouse which burned in 1928 are located at the courthouse. There is also a marker on the lawn dedicated to the six industrial giants from the county. Born within a few miles of each other were these six people. They are recognized as giants of industry in the Southeast. “Asa G. Candler of Villa Rica was founder and first president of Coca Cola; Sam Chandler Dobbs, president of Coca Cola; Arther Acklen, president of Coca Cola; Warren Sewell, father of men’s clothing manufacturing in the South;     D. W. Brooks started the Georgia Cotton Cooperative which became Gold Kist, and Roy Richards developed Southwire into one of the largest copper wire companies in the world.”

Carroll County is home to the The University of West Georgia founded on the campus of the Fourth District A & M School. John Tanner State Park near Mt. Zion is home to Georgia's largest sand beach. McIntosh Reserve  the county nature park is located along the Chattahoochee River near  Whitesburg.   Villa Rica is home to the Historic Pine Mountain Gold Mines Museum and Park. In Bowdon, you can schedule a visit to The Old Methodist Protestant Church, the last remaining structure from the Old Bowdon College Campus and the Shelnutt House Museum. In Historic Carrollton, you can take a stroll on  Adamson Square, with it many shops,  restaurants, and entertainment; visit the Cotton Mill Farmers Market on Saturday mornings from April through October;  the gravesite of Oscar-winning actress Susan Hayward at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church or do genealogical research at the Neva Lomason Memorial Library Special Collections.

In 1996 two major events took place in Carrollton, West Georgia College was named a State University, and  the  Olympic touch relay passed through Downtown Square and the college campus on it way to the centennial Olympic Games in Atlanta. In 2002, the County celebrated it’s 175th Anniversary with a year long celebration.  Today Carroll County is on the move as both a bed-room community of Atlanta and a small agricultural county working to preserve its past.

Come Visit Carroll County  - "Georgia's Last Frontier"