Historic Sites in Heard County

The history of Heard County

Heard County was created in 1830 from portions of Carroll, Coweta and Troup counties, on land the Muscogee (Creek) Nation lost under the Treaty of Indian Springs in 1825. It is named for Stephen Heard, a Revolutionary War patriot and planter who fought at Kettle Creek and, as president of Georgia's executive council from 1780 to 1781, served as the state's de facto governor. Franklin, the county seat, honors Benjamin Franklin and was incorporated in 1831. Most of the first white settlers came from other parts of Georgia and acquired their land through the state's land lotteries. Rocky soil kept early farming close to subsistence, but cotton eventually brought a measure of prosperity in the nineteenth century. The boll weevil and the Great Depression brought hard times, and forestry later became the leading industry, along with cattle and poultry farming and factory work. Nearly all of the county lies within the Chattahoochee River basin. The first courthouse burned in 1893, and its 1894 replacement served until a new building was completed in 1964. The county jail built in 1912, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1981, now houses the Heard County Historical Center and Museum. Among the county's most colorful figures was Mayhayley Lancaster, remembered as a fortune-teller, lawyer, activist and schoolteacher.

Sources: georgiaencyclopedia.orgen.wikipedia.orgen.wikipedia.org