This is the About Gordon County, Georgia page. This will be a work in progress continuously as I add items that I think will interest (Jerry and Deane), but most of all you. Let's all work to make this page a great informational page about Gordon. Most questions about Gordon can be answered at the City of Gordon - Moving onward ... They have a calendar of events, local businesses, City Officials. If you want to converse with others on a mailing list in re to Gordon or Gordon people, you may join the Rootsweb Mailing List for Gordon. If you do not know about mailing lists and how they work, it would be best if you read the instructions on the List link before posting:) but if you don't read directions, just go ahead and Click here to subscribe without reading instructions.

• County Seat: Calhoun - Senator Calhoun * On March 18, 1782, John C. Calhoun was born near Abbeville, South Carolina. Calhoun became a congressman, senator, secretary of war, secretary of state, and vice president of the United States. A formidable theorist, Calhoun was also known for his irascible temperament. Calhoun is vastly remembered for his determined defense of the institution of slavery. During the course of his career, he reversed his stand as a nationalist and advocated states' rights as a means of preserving slavery in the South. As a South Carolina senator, Calhoun used the argument of states' rights to protect slavery in what is known as the Nullification Crisis of 1832-1833.
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  In the Senate, Calhoun engineered passage of the gag rule that precluded discussion of slavery. As secretary of state in the last year of John TYLER's administration (1844), he arranged the annexation of Texas, which he justified on the ground that it would enlarge the area open to slavery and so help preserve sectional balance in the union. Back in the Senate in 1846, he led the battle against the Wilmot Proviso, which would have excluded slavery from territories acquired as a result of the Mexican War.
• He was still insisting upon the right of the slaveholders to take their human chattels into any territory of the United States when he denounced the Compromise of 1850 almost with his last breath. Too ill to speak, Calhoun sat in the Senate while his final exhortation was read on March 4, 1850. His last appearance there was on March 7, when he heard and approved Daniel Webster's appeal for sectional peace. He died in Washington on March 31, 1850. Read the Speech -
• Population: (Year 2000 - Population - 44,104) - Numbers not yet available for 2002.
• Communities in Gordon: Calhoun; Fairville; Plainville; Ranger
  • Calhoun, GA --Municipal address: PO Box 248 Calhoun, GA 30703
  • Population 2000: 10,667 Near the Oostanaula River Named after Sen. John Calhoun Nearly leveled by Sherman's forces in 1864
    Festivals: Cherokee Fall Festival in October
  • Historic sites and museums: New Echota Cherokee Capital State Historic Site, Mercer Air Museum, Okleigh
  • Plainville, GA --- City Population 2000: 257 Named for Plainville, CT
  • Fairmont, GA ---- Population 2000: 745 Named for Fairmont, WV
  • Ranger, GA ------ Pop: 85 named for Ranger, NC
    • Gordon County Courthouse
      Probate Court
      P.O. Box 669
      Calhoun, GA 30703
      Telephone: (706) 629-7314
    • Gordon County Clerk
      P.O. Box 580
      Calhoun, GA 30701
      (706) 629-7314
    • Gordon County Historical Society
      335 S. Wall Street,
      Calhoun, Ga. 30703
      (706)-629-1515
      

      Gordon County was created in 1850 from parts of Floyd and Bartow Counties. The 93rd county formed in the state was named after William Washington Gordon, president of what was then the Central Railroad and Banking Company and later became the Central of Georgia Railroad. (Courtesy of: Public Health) The following information was provided by the City of Gordon - which it was provided by: Ms. Gussie S. Owen and Ms. Miriam M. Brown. The Very Beginning The first house built in the vicinity of Gordon, was an inn about three miles from present town and was a stage stop between Milledgeville and Hawkinsville, one of Georgia's most noted stage routes. The first community in the area was centered around Ramah Church, which was constituted July 10, 1809 by the Brethren Gaylord and McGinty with ten members. Educational, social and cultural affairs of the community centered around the Church for years before Gordon was established. "Gordon County, located in northwestern Georgia, is the site of the last capital of the Cherokee Nation before removal by white settlers on the Trail of Tears. This capital, New Echota, was established in 1825, and was modeled on our own U. S. government, creating a Constitution, a bi-cameral legislature, a Supreme Court, and a Chief Executive. The hope of the Cherokee was that by establishing a nation similar to that of the white man, and fighting him using his own system of law, courts, and through the publication of their own bi-lingual newspaper, the Cherokee Phoenix, a peace could be achieved between the Cherokee and the white man, and they could coexist alongside one another. This was not to be. In 1835, the Treaty of New Echota was signed, and forced removal of the Cherokee began, gathering the natives in makeshift forts then forcing them to being the long march on the Trail of Tears, beginning in North Georgia and ending in Oklahoma. Approximately 4000 Cherokee lost their lives on the Trail. Today, the area of New Echota is a national park, and can be visited and toured. " Source: PageWiseInc.

      Gordon was named for Mr. William W. Gordon, who from April 1836 to November 1842 served as the first president of the Central of Georgia Railroad. The first depot was erected by the railroad in 1855 and it stood only a few yards from the present one. See The Monument - Southern Historic Papers UNC General Information Map of Gordon

      
      
      

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      Sources for News: Cartersville Daily Tribune News --&--- Rome News-Tribune -
      

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      "Records & Information +How To Find for Gordon County"

      
      

      Event: Birth or death Cost of copy: $10.00 Address: (GDHR) Georgia Department of Human Resources Vital Records Service 2600 Skyland Drive, NE Atlanta, GA 30319-3640

      Gordon County Health Dept. 310 North River Street Calhoun, Georgia 30703 (706) 624-1444

      Note: The state office has had records since January 1919, when looking for earlier records in Atlanta or Savannah or other cities or counties, you should write to the Vital Records Office in county where the event occurred. Additional copies of same record ordered at same time are $5.00 each except birth, which are $10.00 each. A money order should be made payable to Vital Records Service. Personal checks are not accepted. To verify current fees, the telephone number is (404) 679-4701.

• Event: Marriage (State)
  Cost of copy: $10.00
  Address: Georgia Department of Human Resources Vital Records Service 2600 Skyland Drive, NE Atlanta, GA 30319-3640
  Notes: Centralized State Depository records since June 9, 1952. Certified copies of marriage documents up to 1966 are issued at State office. Inquiries about marriages occurring before June 9, 1952, should be forwarded to appropriate Probate Judge in county where license was issued. The state office does not record marriage license or applications after July 1, 1997.
• Event: Marriage (county) Cost of copy: Varies
  Address: Probate Judge in county where license was issued.
  Event: Divorce (State)
  Cost of copy: $2.00 for certification plus $0.50 per page.
  Address: <see above>
  Remarks: Centralized State records since June 9, 1952. Certified copies are not issued at State office. Inquiries will be forwarded to appropriate Clerk of Superior Court in county where divorce was granted.
  Event: Divorce (county) - <see above>
  Address: See Notes
  Notes: Clerk of Superior Court in county where divorce was granted.
  
  

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  The Georgia Archives - Read all about it & more... If you have any questions, please contact Anne Smith, Assistant Director for Public Services, at 404-657-4530 or asmith@sos.state.ga.us.
  
  North Georgia Magazine -- About Calhoun
  North Georgia Magazine Historical Markers - Snake Gap Creek Confederate Cemetery Reseca
  Courtesies of: North Georgia Magazine http://www.georgiamagazine.com/ -
  NE Georgia.com site
  

Other places to conduct research in other repositories around Atlanta. Some possibilities are:
Atlanta Fulton Library -- History Room --- Atlanta History Center --- Auburn Avenue Research --- Woodruff Library

• Harriet Boudinot
  Wife of Elias Boudinot, a Native American Leader. She was born Harriet Ruggles Gold Boudinot. She is buried in the New Echota Cemetery in Gordon County, GA.
• Check the Political Graveyard -- Calhoun: W. P. Dodd - J. Paul Dyer - G. J. Fain - C. L. Moss - Jim Starr
  
• Cemeteries and Memorial Sites of Politicians in Gordon County
  Calhoun Fain Cemetery - Calhoun, Gordon County, Georgia
  Politicians buried here: G. J. Fain of Calhoun, Gordon County, Ga. Democrat. Delegate to Democratic National Convention from Georgia, 1860. Interment at Fain Cemetery
  
  Funeral Parlors
• Calhoun - Clifford Free Funeral Home @102 E. Line Street, Calhoun, GA Phone: (706)629-8671
  Calhoun - Brannon & Sons Funeral Home 705 Old Red Bud Rd. Calhoun, GA (706)629-4508
  Calhoun - Ponders Funeral Homes, 675 Jolley Rd., Calhoun 625-7577
  Calhoun -Thomas Funeral Home, 535 Red Bud Rd. NE, Calhoun 629-2832
  
  Other Links:

Request a Look Up in Books - Films - Etc.

Walker County Georgia - Sherry Osborne's Site with great links and information.

Walker County Resources - Bill Clody's Resource Page Terrific Site -

Post a Message or Record on the Boards -

Historical Societies - Artist Originals - Artist Prints - Hotel Rooker - The Depot -

Report a broken link to jprager@strumica.com

Credits to:
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/
http://www.angelfire.com/az/theredbadge/

Other Credits: Direct URLs backdown to original URLs

Complaints:
Serious Researchers can send concerns or complaints to us and we will address them. This site will be here for the researchers and Gordon Co. people that are interested. If you have an item of importance, please email us and we will unless there is adequate reasoning to not, place it on the site for the benefits of researchers.

Complaints by gnats and mutts? Don't bother we will cheerfully ignore, as we realize there are some severely grouchy ole gripers out there in the researchers world that believe they alone are the only ones that can do anything correctly, but we don't have to be bothered by them, rather the more they gripe the more we like it, it is, after all, as one wise lady told us early on, their own stupidity they are showing. We will do what we can with the time that we have.