Historic Sites in Elbert County

The history of Elbert County

Elbert County was created on December 10, 1790, from Wilkes County and named for Samuel Elbert, a Revolutionary War commander who served as governor from 1785 to 1786. The land between the Broad and Savannah rivers had come under colonial control through the 1773 New Purchase, a cession of about two million acres obtained from Muscogee (Creek) and Cherokee leaders. The Revolution brought vicious partisan fighting among Patriots, Loyalists, and Native forces, and the Broad River frontier is tied to Nancy Hart, remembered for single-handedly overpowering a party of Tories who invaded her log cabin. After independence, Petersburg, at the fork of the Broad and Savannah rivers, flourished as a tobacco trading town from the 1790s to the 1830s, then declined as railroads passed it by; its site now lies under Clarks Hill Lake beside Bobby Brown State Park. Elberton, incorporated in 1803, grew into the county's leading town. As a slaveholding cotton county, Elbert supported secession, though Sherman's armies bypassed it. Stone ultimately defined its modern economy. The first granite quarry opened in 1882, Italian stonecutters arrived between 1900 and 1930, and by the 1920s granite had overtaken agriculture, carrying the industry through the Depression and earning Elberton the title Granite Capital of the World.

Sources: georgiaencyclopedia.org