Bartow County, GA
History
Before white settlement, a Native American population included Woodland Indians, Mississippian Mound Builders, Creeks, and Cherokees who flourished in the fertile plains of the Etowah Valley for thousands of years. White settlers acquired land through the 1832 land lottery and the 1832 gold lottery.Bartow County was created from Cherokee lands on December 3, 1832. It was originally called Cass County, after General Lewis Cass (1782–1866) Secretary of War under President Jackson, and the man most responsible for the removal of the Cherokee Indians from northwest Georgia. Cass sided with abolitionists during the Civil War, however, and in 1861 the county was renamed in honor of the first Georgia officer to fall on the field at Manassas, Virginia, Colonel Francis S. Bartow.