Historic Sites in Hart County

The history of Hart County

Hart County was created in 1853 from parts of Elbert and Franklin counties, and it is the only county in Georgia named for a woman: Nancy Hart, the Revolutionary War patriot whose resolute stand against Tories and British soldiers in this part of the state became the stuff of local legend. The county seat, Hartwell, also bears her name and was incorporated in 1856; according to local history, the town narrowly avoided being called Nancyville. Hartwell grew as the supply and processing center for the surrounding farms, and the area escaped most of the direct destruction of the Civil War. Cotton dominated the economy into the early twentieth century, until the boll weevil invasion of the 1920s and the bank failures of the Great Depression brought hardship, and the county's population fell from about 18,000 in 1920 to 15,000 in 1930. After World War II, apparel and textile factories provided new jobs as farming declined. The biggest change came with the construction of Hartwell Dam between 1955 and 1963, which created Lake Hartwell, a reservoir with nearly 1,000 miles of shoreline that brought new residents and recreation. Hartwell's classic courthouse was lost to fire in 1967 and replaced. Notable natives include J. J. Brown, Georgia's eighth commissioner of agriculture, and novelist Terry Kay.

Sources: georgiaencyclopedia.orggeorgiaencyclopedia.orgen.wikipedia.org