North Georgia Copper, Gold and Iron Mines
The
Cherokees left behind silver and gold mines in North
Georgia. After the treaties and settlement of their lands by
whites, some of the silver mines were located. They were everywhere in the
hills of North Georgia. Many were disguised
and hidden by the Cherokees before they left in 1833-1834. The Nacoochee valley, through the counties of Cherokee, Cobb,
Paulding, Haralson and Carroll and into Alabama,
there is a region which by 1875 had yielded more than $20,000,000 in gold on
the mere surface. All of this land belonged to the Cherokees until 1834. The
traders knew of the wealth along the waters of the Tallulah, the Toccoa, the Tugaloo, the Chattooga, the Etowah and the Amicula. In one year, 3,000 people rushed into the eastern
end of Cherokee County! By this same date, White County
was washed by a recorded weight of over two tons of gold and nuggets were found
in the Nacoochee, the old Sixes in Cherokee and some
places in Carroll. A Northern company erected dams and pipes in the Nacooghee valley and on Yahooola river before the War Between the States. The hydraulic
system became a profitable system in Lumpkin and White counties. "The gold
and copper mining interest are brighter than they have
been for several years. There is a probability of a large wagon train being put
on the road between this point and Carroll copper mines hauling copper in
transit for Baltimore
and the east." The Marietta
Journal June 11, 1875. On October 8, 1875 this newspaper reported that
plenty of gold had been found in Dahlonega. This same newspaper reported on
November 13, 1877 "A letter from M. O. P. McRoberts
to Tom Irwin of Cobb County was received about a rich and valuable gold
mine now undergoing development adjoining the famous Kellogg Gold Mine in Cherokee County. Not only was gold, silver
and copper mined in North Georgia, but iron
was also plentiful. Mr. D. R. Adams of Cobb County
discovered an iron mine on his farm, three miles North East of Marietta, which
was noted as the richest of any seen. Also, Mr. H. B. Williams, a resident of
Moon Station in Cobb
County, discovered a
copper mine on his farm. The Marietta
Journal February 1, 1876.
Research Tips
By Jeannette Holland Austin
All
of the Cherokees did not go West. Some of them
remained behind on their North Georgia farms.
We know this because in 1900, when the Dawes Commission prepared to distribute Oklahoma lands among
blood-Indians, it was encumbant upon the families to
prove lineages. Therefore, their applications (found at the Federal Archives)
explained relationships. Applicants from Georgia named every Indian relative
that they could remember or heard tell of. Other Indians, not
full-blooded, passed as white persons. White traders who had
intermarried with the Indians, usually preferred to stay behind although some
of them tried to get the land later. The Indians kept their own sort of
records, called "Indian Rolls". Applications for land were denied by
the Dawes Commission if they did not locate a person on one of the rolls. The
applications in the Court of Claims from 1906 to 1910, which are the Records of
the Eastern Cherokee Ancestry, have been abstracted and published as Cherokee
by Blood by Jerry Wright Jordan in a number of volumes. You can find them
at www.genealogy-books.com
. It is worth it to purchase the whole set (which is sometimes out
of print) because of the necessity in comparing the applications of persons
claiming descent from the same ancestors.
New Additions
Native Americans : 1833 Creek Census of
Upper and Lowe5 Creek Towns; Cherokees who Remained in Georgia - In 1833, Cherokee families who wished
to remain in Georgia took an
Oath to the United States.
Their names were listed; and 1835 New Echota
Residents (Cherokees) - These residents requested the militia to maintain order
among the Cherokees in this Cherokee town. Military Records: Georgia
Veterans of the Mexican War; Revolutionary War Soldiers Residing in
Georgia...Powers of Attorneys & Misc. Records as Evidenced by Deeds and
Other documents. Obituaries : 1875-1876, 1879,
obituaries from The Marietta Journal, includes Cobb, Cherokee, Paulding Counties.
Marriages : Cobb County 1875-1876, 1879 (from
newspapers); Marriage Contracts (1786-1810) as Evidenced by Deeds & Other
Documents. Genealogies : Hansell of Cobb
County, Rumph of Orangeburg Co., S. C. & Houston
County Probate Records : >Cobb County Miscellaneous Estate Records
mentioned in the Minutes of the Court from 1869-1873.
Bible Records :Abbott, Anderson-Dutton, Arden,
Arnett, Bacon, Bailey-May-Collins, Bale, Beckett, Bledsoe, Brown, Brunt,
Christian, Collins, Elkins, Floyd, Lee, Meek, Moore,
Noble, Nordan, Nichols, Oliver, Stow-Ferrell, Taylor, Thompson, Tigner, Tilson, Tims, Turk, Trammell.
Copyright Restrictions Apply: The
content of this newsletter is the sole property of Jeannette Holland Austin. "I
hereby give the right to freely quote or redistribute this article, provided
that full credit is given to the author as well as links provided to www.georgiapioneers.com
Without written permission,
the right to add or incorporate any of my articles into a website is expressly
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…..Jeannette Holland Austin”