The New Georgia Encyclopedia is supported by funding from A More Perfect Union, a special initiative of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
The city of Dalton, founded as Cross Plains in 1837, is the seat of Whitfield County. Known as the carpet capital of the world, Dalton and the surrounding region produce most of the nation's tufted carpets.
Courtesy of Dalton Convention and Visitors Bureau
An aerial photograph, taken in 1890, shows the north end of Dalton, the capital of Whitfield County.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, # wtf025.
Located in Dalton, Whitfield County's second courthouse, pictured circa 1907, was built in 1891 to replace a wooden structure burned by Union troops during the Civil War. The second courthouse was used until 1960, when it was demolished.
Courtesy of Georgia Info, Digital Library of Georgia.
Cotton farmers converge on Hamilton Street in Dalton, circa 1900. Agriculture was the predominant industry in the Dalton area until the end of the nineteenth century, when farming was largely supplanted by the textile industry.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
wtf078.
Chenille bedspreads hang on a line in Dalton, where in 1895 resident Catherine Evans Whitener revived the craft of hand tufting. The resulting cottage industry for the production of chenille goods is credited as the origin of Dalton's renowned carpet industy.
Courtesy of Dalton Convention and Visitors Bureau
Downtown Dalton, the seat of Whitfield County, is pictured in the 1950s. In the years following World War II (1941-45), the city experienced an economic boom with the growth of its carpet industry.
Courtesy of Sherry Cady
The headquarters of World Carpets, pictured in 1969, featured a waterfall on its Morris Street side. World Carpets was founded in Dalton in 1954 by husband and wife Shaheen Shaheen and Piera Barbaglia.
From World Carpets: The First Thirty Years, by S. Shaheen
Downtown Dalton in the twenty-first century features numerous attractions, including shopping and cultural events. The city is located in Whitfield County, eighty miles north of Atlanta.
Courtesy of Dalton Convention and Visitors Bureau
Hamilton Memorial Hospital, pictured circa 1930, was built in Dalton in 1918 during the influenza pandemic of that year.
Courtesy of Crown Gardens and Archives
Streetscape of Dalton, the seat of Whitfield County, taken in the 1940s.
Courtesy of Sherry Cady
The Glascock County Courthouse in Gibson was built in 1919 and remodeled in 1942. An extensive renovation of the interior was completed in 1973.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
The town that is now Talking Rock, in Pickens County, was originally part of the Cherokee Nation. Today, the tiny town claims fewer than 100 residents.
Photograph by Pam Brannon
The modern town of Talking Rock, in Pickens County, grew up around the railroad during the late nineteenth century. The town incorporated in 1883.
Photograph by Pam Brannon
This old hotel in Talking Rock is a remnant from the town's era of prosperity. Before the turn of the twentieth century, Talking Rock boomed with the arrival of the railroad, the growth of the marble industry, and the thriving commerce of a factory, mills, cotton gins, and stores.
Courtesy of Robert Scott Davis
Ludville Academy, pictured circa 1930, was built in the community of Ludville in 1877 and ten years later moved to Talking Rock, where it housed the first high school in Pickens County.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
pck059-82.
Manchester, incorporated in 1909, was named for the industrial city in England. Although it is not the county seat, Manchester is the largest town in Meriwether County.
Photograph by Jim Corley
The Callaway Mills textile plant was built in Manchester by Fuller E. Callaway in the early 1900s, and the annual company picnic was held every July 15, Callaway's birthday. Men are shown barbecuing pigs in preparation for the picnic.
Courtesy of Troup County Archives, Nix-Price Collection.
Manchester native Stuart Woods is a successful popular-fiction writer. His first novel, Chiefs (1981), is set in the fictional town of Delano, which shares many similarities with Manchester.
Photograph by Mark Coggins
Signs above the doors at a railroad station in Manchester (Meriwether County), pictured in 1944, read "Colored Men" and "Colored Waiting Room," indicating segregated facilities.
Courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Farm Security Administration - Office of War Information Photograph Collection, #LC-USF3301-001172-M4.
An aerial view of Callaway Mills in Manchester.
Courtesy of Troup County Archives, LaGrange, Callaway Educational Association Collection.
The town of Flowery Branch is located on the shores of Lake Lanier in north Georgia. The name Flowery Branch is the translation of the Cherokee word Anaguluskee, the town's original name.
Image from G. DAWSON
In this photograph, dated 1911, workers are installing waterworks along Main Street in Flowery Branch. The town, about twelve miles from Gainesville, was incorporated in 1983.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
hal255.
The old Southern Railway depot in Flowery Branch was restored and converted to a community center in the 1970s. The Flowery Branch Museum is housed in the railroad car beside the depot.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
hal219.
Downtown Plains is part of the attraction for tourists visiting the area. Tourism is the main industry for Plains today, but the area has primarily been a farming community for most of its history.
Courtesy of Explore Georgia, Photograph by Ralph Daniel.
This historic postcard shows Main Street in downtown Plains in 1905. At the time, cotton farming was the largest local enterprise.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #sum135a.
Jimmy Carter's boyhood home and farm in Plains, where the family grew peanuts, are managed today by the National Park Service.
Photograph from National Park Service
In Plains Jimmy Carter teaches Sunday school at Maranatha Baptist Church, where a large crowd usuallly gathers to attend the class.
Courtesy of National Park Service
Pelham, in Mitchell County, was incorporated in 1881 and named for a Civil War soldier.
Photograph by Greg Loyd
The Hand Trading Company was the largest mercantile store in southwest Georgia in the early twentieth century. Pictured in 1918, the four-story retail emporium featured nearly 100,000 feet of floor space.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, # mit022.
Located just outside the Pelham city limits, WABW-TV, Channel 14, is a full-power television station and a repeater of Georgia Public Broadcasting. The station's UHF tower broadcasts its signal as far south as Florida and well north of Albany.
Photograph by Greg Loyd
The four-acre park, located on Lumber Street in Lincolnton, is the primary project of the Lincoln County Historical Society. Several nineteenth-century structures are preserved on the site.
Image from J Stephen Conn
William Henry Braselton, the first mayor of Braselton, built this house in the early 1900s. Today it is used as Braselton's town hall, and the structure is rumored to be haunted.
Image from Chris Pruitt
The Chateau Elan Resort and Winery in Braselton is a major tourist attraction northeast of Atlanta.
Image from Bruce Tuten
The bell that once rang for the Braselton High School, from 1920 to 1957, now sits on the grounds of Braselton's town hall.
Courtesy of Britney Compton
Road Atlanta, a 2.54-mile, 12-turn road-racing course in Braselton, is a major tourist attraction in Jackson County. The venue, part of the Panoz Motor Sports Group, offers a variety of motor-sport events, including sports car, motorcycle, and kart racing.
Image from Osajus Photography
The Florence Marina State Park, about sixteen miles west of Lumpkin, is situated at the northern end of Lake Walter F. George. The park is one of many attractions in the area.
Courtesy of Matthew M. Moye
Brigadier general Clement Anselm Evans, a Confederate war hero who later became a Methodist minister, was born and reared in Lumpkin. The Evans home was built circa 1835.
Courtesy of Matthew M. Moye
The Bedingfield Inn, pictured before its restoration in 1965, was built in the antebellum era, when Lumpkin served as a stagecoach stop. Restoring the inn became the first small-town community preservation project in Georgia.
Courtesy of Stewart County Historical Commission
The Newton County Courthouse rises over downtown Covington, known as both "the city of beautiful homes" and as "a full-service city." The city supports an active Main Street program, which revitalized the historic downtown and created new economic opportunity for Covington residents.
Image from Neal Wellons
A monument in downtown Covington reads: "In loving and grateful memory of those citizens of Newton County who gave their lives in the defense of our country."
Photograph by Kate Howard, New Georgia Encyclopedia
Cast members of the television series In the Heat of the Night pose during the filming of an episode in downtown Covington, circa 1994. From left, Denise Nicholas (Harriet DeLong), Carroll O'Connor (Sheriff Bill Gillespie), and Carl Weathers (Chief Hampton Forbes).
Courtesy of Georgia Department of Economic Development.
The gold-topped Price Memorial Hall, on the campus of North Georgia College and State University, rises above Dahlonega, the seat of Lumpkin County. The site of a gold rush in 1828-29, Dahlonega today attracts tourists interested in both its history and scenic mountain setting.
Image from davidaabrown
In 1838 a federal Branch Mint went into operation at Dahlonega. It coined more than $100,000 worth of gold in its first year, and by the time it closed in 1861, it had produced almost 1.5 million gold coins with a face value of more than $6 million.
Courtesy of Dahlonega Mountain Signal
Construction of the Consolidated Gold Mining Company began in Dahlonega in 1899, during a revived interest in the area's gold. The company was the largest gold-processing plant east of the Mississippi River.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
lum133.
The Dahlonega Gold Museum, one of the city's many tourist attractions, is housed in the historic Lumpkin County Courthouse, built in 1836. The museum documents the importance of gold to the area's history and economy.
Courtesy of Explore Georgia, Photograph by Ralph Daniel.
Three Frenchmen brought a couple of dancing bears to Dahlonega for a show in 1892.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, # lum058.
A gold-mining operation near Dahlonega is pictured circa 1910.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
lum211.
Workers harvest and distill turpentine at a still near Pembroke, which was founded as a railroad town and turpentine-shipping center in 1890. Incorporated in 1905, Pembroke became the seat of Bryan County in 1937.
Courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Farm Security Administration - Office of War Information Photograph Collection, #LC-USF34-043792-D.
Hiawassee, the seat of Towns County, is situated on the banks of Lake Chatuge, a reservoir created by the Tennessee Valley Authority in 1941. Although 3,500 acres of land were covered by the lake, its creation improved the local economy. Today the lake is a popular recreation area.
Photograph by Tom Cooper
The Cumming Country Fair and Festival, held each October in Cumming, offers a variety of rides and games along the midway, as well as concerts, a petting zoo, and Heritage Village, which features historical exhibits.
Photograph by Nancy Horton
Cumming City Hall is located in downtown Cumming, the seat of Forsyth County. The four-story building houses the city's administrative offices and features a rotunda depicting various community leaders from 1900 to 2002.
Photograph by Thomson200 / CC0
On January 17, 1987, a group of Atlantans marched to protest the lack of African Americans in Cumming, the seat of Forsyth County. Led by the Reverend Hosea Williams, the march was disrupted by militant white racists, many from outside the county.
Courtesy of Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The Fitzpatrick Hotel, pictured in the background, is a historic structure in downtown Washington. Originally called Heard's Fort, the city is said to be the first place in the nation named in honor of U.S. president George Washington. Incorporated in 1805, Washington is the seat of Wilkes County.
Image from Brent Moore
The home of Robert Toombs, a Confederate general and U.S. senator, was built in 1797. Located in Washington, the seat of Wilkes County, the home is open to the public as a state historic site.
Courtesy of Explore Georgia, Photograph by Ralph Daniel.
In May 1865 the final cabinet meeting of the Confederacy, presided over by Jefferson Davis, was held in the State of Georgia Bank building in Washington. The building, pictured circa 1900, later served as the residence of B. W. Heard.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
wlk001.
A carnival on the square in Washington is pictured circa 1901. The Fitzpatrick Hotel is on the left, and the old Wilkes County Courthouse is visible behind the Ferris wheel. A sign advertises "wild Aztec girls," and says they are "twenty-four years old, stand three feet tall, weigh thirty-seven pounds, and their heads are no larger than an orange."
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
wlk119.
A revitalization effort in downtown Sylvania, completed in 2005, brought new sidewalks and other improvements to the city. The seat of Screven County, Sylvania is known as the "Azalea and Dogwood City," as well as the "Welcome Station City."
Photograph by Nancy Edenfield
An early-twentieth-century postcard, date issued 1930-1945, depicts the Screven County Courthouse in Sylvania. This courthouse was built in 1897 to replace one that burned in a citywide fire that same year, and served the county until 1963.
Image from Boston Public Library
Residents of Screven County participate in the parade for the 2006 Livestock Festival, held each April in Sylvania. The Miss Screven County Livestock Festival Queen is also crowned during the festival.
Photograph by Nancy Edenfield
The Roberts-McGregor House in Warrenton, the seat of Warren County, was a two-story stuccoed brick home built in 1835. The home was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979 and was later demolished.
Courtesy of Owens Library, School of Environment and Design, University of Georgia, Hubert B. Owens Collection, #Box 45.
This etching by John Norman, made around 1776, depicts the death of Joseph Warren at the Battle of Bunker Hill during the Revolutionary War. Both Warren County and its seat, Warrenton, in east central Georgia are named in his honor.
Courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
The old Baker County Courthouse in Newton was flooded by the Flint River in both 1994 and 1998. The structure was restored in 2000 and today houses a library and county government offices.
Courtesy of Greg Loyd
A Central of Georgia Railway train stops at the depot in Colquitt, the seat of Miller County, around 1890. The only incorporated town in the county, Colquitt was named in honor of preacher and politician Walter Terry Colquitt.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
mil001.
The first courthouse in Grady County was built in Cairo in 1908. The structure, which was designed by architect Alexander Blair, burned in 1980.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
gra060.
In 1964 the family of Walter Blair Roddenbery (in portrait), owners of the W. B. Roddenbery Company, donated $185,000 for the construction of a library in Cairo. Pictured at the library's dedication are, from left, Ralph Roddenbery, Fred Roddenbery, librarian Wessie Connell, J. B. Roddenbery, and J. B. Roddenbery Jr.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #gra050.
Georgia native Teresa Edwards has been recognized as one of the greatest American female athletes of the twentieth century. After beginning her career playing for the University of Georgia, she went on to play basketball in the WNBA as well as international leagues. Edwards is the first basketball player to have played in five Olympics, and she won gold in the 1996 Atlanta games.
Courtesy of Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Cairo, the seat of Grady County, was settled in the early 1800s and incorporated in 1870. The city is governed by a mayor, city manager, and five-member city council.
Image from Michael Rivera
Alonzo Webb (left) and Jim Webb pose outside their general store in Adel, circa 1920. Originally named Puddleville, Adel was incorporated in 1889 and became the seat of Cook County in 1918.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, # cok007-82.
A walking trail winds through the grounds of Reed Bingham State Park, located near Adel in Cook and Colquitt counties. The park surrounds a 375-acre lake, which is used for boating, fishing, and waterskiing.
Image from Mike McCall
Wildflowers grow near Hinesville, the seat of Liberty County.
Image from K e v i n
The M. R. Riviere Drugstore, pictured circa 1905, was located across from Bradwell Park in Hinesville, the seat of Liberty County.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, # lib067.
Samuel Dowse Bradwell (left) poses with faculty members outside Bradwell Institute, circa 1875. The private boarding school was founded as the Hinesville Academy by Bradwell's father but closed during the Civil War. Bradwell reopened the school after the war and renamed it in honor of his father.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
lib058.
A worker operates a turpentine still in Hinesville during the 1930s. The decade was one of growing prosperity for the community, which steadily recovered from the devastation of the Civil War.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, # lib011.
The roads that led from Camp Stewart to Hinesville were filled with a variety of entertainment choices, including juke-joints, bars, gambling houses, USO clubs, and entertainment booths, like the one pictured here in April 1941.
Courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Farm Security Administration - Office of War Information Photograph Collection, #LC-DIG-fsa-8a35213.
Stores line Main Street in Hinesville, the seat of Liberty County, in 1941. The arrival of Camp Stewart the previous year spurred tremendous growth in Hinesville during World War II, as establishments catering to the soldiers opened in the town.
Courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Farm Security Administration - Office of War Information Photograph Collection, #LC-USF34-043785-D.
Soldiers at Fort Stewart, near Hinesville in Liberty County, stand in formation outside the fort's headquarters. Established during World War II, the fort has remained active and today houses around 16,000 troops of the Third Infantry Division.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
lib001.
In 2003 Greensboro was a Main Street Community of the Georgia Department of Community Affairs.
Main Street was a center of activity in Greensboro, pictured circa 1895. The economy of the city, the seat of Greene County, was heavily dependent on cotton production in the area.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #grn213.
African American tenant farmers pose before a cotton field in Greene County in October 1940. The woman has a cotton sack slung over her shoulder.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
grn208.
Men gather to buy and sell cotton at the Cotton Exchange in Greensboro, circa 1891. After the Civil War, the community returned to the production of cotton as its primary economic activity, but a boll weevil infestation in 1922 led to the city's decline for the remainder of the decade.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
grn167.
