Historic Sites in Paulding County

The history of Paulding County

Paulding County was one of nine counties created in 1832 from the original Cherokee County, as Georgia divided Cherokee Nation lands after gold was discovered in north Georgia in 1829. The Muscogee (Creek) had held the area before it passed to the Cherokee in the mid-1700s. The county honors John Paulding, one of three New Yorkers who captured the British spy Major John André during the American Revolution. Its first seat was Van Wert, named for another of André's captors, but when Polk County was formed in 1851 Van Wert fell inside the new county, and Paulding's government moved to Dallas, named for Vice President George M. Dallas. By 1840 farms produced corn, wheat, tobacco and cotton. In May 1864 the county became a major battleground as Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston's army confronted William T. Sherman's forces at New Hope Church, Pickett's Mill and Dallas, fighting that held up the Union advance on Atlanta. The East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia Railroad arrived in 1882, tripling the population of Dallas within a decade and creating the depot town of Braswell. Historic places open to visitors include the Pickett's Mill Battlefield Historic Site, the 1892 courthouse in Dallas, the Hiram Colored School built in 1930 with support from the Rosenwald Fund, and the Silver Comet Trail.

Sources: georgiaencyclopedia.orggeorgiahistory.com