Historic Sites in Haralson County

The history of Haralson County

Haralson County was created in 1856 from parts of Carroll and Polk counties, becoming Georgia's 113th county, and was named for Hugh A. Haralson, a state legislator and U.S. congressman. Its seat, Buchanan, was originally called Pierceville before being renamed for President James Buchanan, and it was incorporated in 1857. The land had been home to Cherokee and Muscogee (Creek) people, who were displaced as white settlers pushed into west Georgia during the gold rush era. Once gold mining played out, farming, cotton and lumber sustained the economy, and railroad connections later attracted manufacturers. Tallapoosa, incorporated in 1860, takes its name from a Muskogee word often translated as 'golden water.' In the 1880s and 1890s the planned communities of Budapest and Nitra produced wine until Georgia's prohibition law of 1907 put an end to the industry. Bremen, incorporated in 1883, became known from the 1940s through the 1990s as the 'Clothing Center of the South' for its garment factories. The 1891 courthouse in Buchanan, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974, now houses a library and the local historical society, while a modern courthouse took over county business in 1972. Longtime Georgia House Speaker Tom Murphy came from the county, and major league baseball player Whitlow Wyatt retired there.

Sources: georgiaencyclopedia.orgen.wikipedia.org