Historic Sites in Banks County

The history of Banks County

Banks County was created by an act of December 11, 1858, from portions of Franklin and Habersham counties in northeast Georgia. It is named for Dr. Richard Banks, a physician and surgeon based in Gainesville whose practice reached across north Georgia and South Carolina and who became known for treating Cherokee patients during smallpox outbreaks. Homer, incorporated in 1859, replaced the earlier community of New Lebanon as the county seat. The region lay near the boundary between Georgia and the Cherokee Nation drawn by the 1783 Treaty of Augusta. The county's historic courthouse in Homer was built in 1863, in the middle of the Civil War, and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places; a new courthouse replaced it in 1987. Over time the local economy moved from forestry and small farms to poultry and then to manufacturing. In 1911 the state opened a public tuberculosis sanatorium in the county. Banks County was the birthplace of baseball great Ty Cobb, and Governor Allen D. Candler and educator Zach S. Henderson, later president of what became Georgia Southern University, also had roots here. Surviving landmarks include the 1915 Lula Covered Bridge, among the smallest covered bridges in the state, Nails Creek Baptist Church, the old county jail and the Fort Hollingsworth site.

Sources: georgiaencyclopedia.orggeorgiahistory.com