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This information is based on interviews conducted with Colonel Lemuel J. Allred and Mr. James Simmons, by the Ellijay Courier newspaper in 1887. Not long after Pickens County was carved out of Cherokee County and Gilmer in 1853 by legislation drafted by Colonel Lemuel Allred, a new town was proposed as the county seat. James Simmons, the former legislator who moved to the area in 1835 and lived in Colonel Haney Nelson's old Tavern along the Federal Road, originally proposed

Charles Walker's conceptual drawing of an Indian Removal fort. Nearly 190 years ago, in what is now Cherokee County, more specifically in an area near Lake Allatoona and Bridgemill, an Indian Removal fort was built in 1838. Eight years earlier, Camp Hinar was established when a Federal Lieutenant named Abram Fowler destroyed 19 buildings built by prospectors and gold miners who had illegally entered the Cherokee Territory. The Indian Removal Act was passed in May, 1830. Dis

On the afternoon of April 2nd, 2025, Pickens County resident Jessica McCabe found a cannonball near the bridge off Swan Bridge road

The summer of 1951 was a little hotter than normal. And that June 10th, Roxie Lee Blackwell Hendrix, her children, and a few others had gone to the private lake of the Roy Roper Yellow Creek Church. They borrowed a motor from a friend to place on their aluminum boat for a ride. The pond in 2024 The Roper Farm on the 1903 Henley Map Lake today, lower right corner The Roper Lake was a spring-fed four-acre lake about 12 to 15 feet deep. It is located roughly a mile west of t

John Azor Kellogg wrote a memoir of the time he spent with the people of north Georgia that his family published after his death. He was...

The actual woodbridge to the Woodbridge Inn The beginnings of Jasper, the Woodbridge inn, and the hospitality industry in Northwest Georgia go back to 1805. In that year, the State of Georgia expended $5,000 surveying a route from what is now Flowery Branch in Hall County, GA, through the Cherokee Nation to the Tennessee state line. Eventually this trail went on to Nashville, Tennessee. The Federal Road was negotiated by Federal treaty (hence, the name) but surveyed by the st

The home guards remain one of the most confusing aspects of the history of the Civil War in Georgia. Family tales and reminiscences...

I am Jake Scudder, a Wilkes County man from Jackson, A Whig and Republican in political conviction, Resting beneath these columns of polished marble Which stand on a hilltop at Diana's Chapel, Rising like a sentinel to guard the treasure tunnel And looking over the river toward Lewis Blackburn - (except from larger writing on Scudder) Jacob McCartney Scudder was born in the last two decades of the 18th Century in Wilkes County, North Carolina. He moved to Georgia as a young

The Treaty of Tellico and the great road that traversed Augusta, Georgia to Knoxville, Tennessee. In 1805 the Federal Road was created, having been established by a treaty between the Cherokee and the United States Government. Chief James Vann, a half Scot, half Cherokee leader. The treaty allowed for the passage of the white settlers through the Cherokee Territory. A series of taverns and public houses were constructed along different segments providing travelers with

In 1804, the Cherokee Indians had negotiated the terms of the creation of a Federal Road that ran between Tennessee to Augusta, Georgia. In exchange for settlers' passage through the Cherokee Territory, the Indians were allowed to operate taverns along their old Cherokee highway. In less than 30 years, in 1832, the Cherokee Territory was mapped out at the request of the government with the purpose of dividing the land into lots, giving away lots by a lottery system creating

In searching through the archives of deeds at the county, I came across this map of the town of Jasper dated March 5th, 1883. The chief engineer of the Marietta and North Georgia Railroad Company, F.S. Wallace, drew this map up to demonstrate the lands that were conveyed to help facilitate the passage of the railroad through the town of Jasper. The map is below along with what I could make of the penmanship of the document. {Georgia, {Pickens County: For the purpose of e

An illustration of the game of Anetsa being played. Anetsa, a game that resembles lacrosse, was a Cherokee Indian game played by two teams of up to eighteen players on a 100-yard field. Normally this was played by a water source. They used wooden sticks (longer than a tennis racquet) with a depressed cavity made of deer sinew (looking similar to a spoon) On each end of the field, there were two poles erected with a pole spanning the top (similar to Football posts). The first

Fort Newnan was built in March of 1838 in Gilmer County (Present-day Pickens) It was named after Major General Daniel Newnan, Georgia Secretary of State of the 1820s. The Fort was led by Captain Reverend John Dorsey. He led a mounted regiment. On May 26, 1938, After the Indian removal was completed, Captain Dorsey refused to give up the post. A detachment was sent to arrest him, but by their arrival, he had gone home and half of his men had left. The remainder of his tr

Carmel Mission, which took its name on January 7, 1824 - previously named Taloney Mission, was a missionary outpost of the Presbyterians established in 1819 in Gilmer County (present-day Pickens County). The property today is located about two miles northwest of Talking Rock, 12 miles south of Ellijay, just north of 136, and south of Talking Rock Creek by a fifth of a mile on private property. (LL83) Carmel was located near Sanderstown (named after John and George Sander

Chief Vann was a controversial figure. Born in the 1760s, the half Scotsman/half Cherokee, grew to become a wealthy businessman,...