Historic Sites in Hall County

The history of Hall County

Hall County was created in 1818 from lands ceded by the Cherokee, the forty-fifth county organized in Georgia. It honors Lyman Hall, a signer of the Declaration of Independence who served as governor in 1783–84. Gainesville, the county seat, was incorporated in 1821. Most early white settlers were of Scots-Irish, English and German descent and came from the Carolinas and Virginia, bringing Baptist, Methodist and Presbyterian congregations with them. The discovery of gold just north of the county in 1828 drew a wave of newcomers, but as the rush faded in the 1830s the area returned to raising grain and livestock. Railroads arrived in 1871, and by the 1920s textile mills dominated local industry, a position they held until mid-century. Former Confederate general James Longstreet moved to Gainesville in 1875, serving as postmaster and operating the forty-room Piedmont Hotel. After a deadly tornado struck Gainesville in 1936, poultry production expanded rapidly during the rebuilding, and businessman Jesse Jewell pioneered a vertically integrated system for raising and processing chickens that helped earn the city the nickname 'Poultry Capital of the World.' In the 1950s the damming of the Chattahoochee River created Lake Lanier, which reshaped the county's landscape and has drawn millions of visitors each year.

Sources: georgiaencyclopedia.orgen.wikipedia.org