Historic Sites in Lincoln County

The history of Lincoln County

Lincoln County was created on February 20, 1796, from part of Wilkes County and named for Benjamin Lincoln, the Continental Army major general who accepted the British surrender sword at Yorktown. The Muscogee (Creek) and Cherokee people who had used these lands ceded them to Georgia in 1773, and the first white settlers came largely from the Carolinas. When the Revolutionary War reached the backcountry, many families fled across the Savannah River into South Carolina, and returning settlers fought under Colonels Elijah Clarke and John Dooly in the Patriot victory at Kettle Creek in February 1779. Both men made their homes in the area. Lincolnton was chosen as the county seat in 1800 and incorporated in 1817. Clarke and his wife, Hannah, are buried at Elijah Clark State Park on the shore of Clarks Hill Lake, where a replica log cabin displays furnishings and tools of the frontier era. As the Civil War ended, on May 24, 1865, raiders plundered wagons of Virginia bank funds camped near the Chennault Plantation, and much of the money was never recovered. Union general Edward A. Wild then arrested and mistreated members of the Chennault family, who proved innocent, and Ulysses S. Grant removed him from command. Mulberry Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, built in 1873, is among the county's other historic landmarks.

Sources: georgiaencyclopedia.orggeorgiaencyclopedia.orggastateparks.org