Coweta County, Georgia History
THE HISTORY OF COWETA COUNTY
This information is from georgia.gov
Georgia's 67th county bears the name of the Coweta Indians, a Creek tribe headed
by William McIntosh, Jr., the half-Scott, half Creek who relinquished lands to
the Federal government in the 1825 Treaty of Indian Springs.
Newnan was named for General Daniel Newnan who fought in the Indian Wars, the
War of 1812, and later served in the Georgia General Assembly. Newnan was home
at various times to the Male Academy and to the College Temple, a prestigious
school which was the first to offer a Master of Arts for women.
The Chattahoochee-Flint Heritage Highway, a scenic highway and bike route, runs
through Coweta, Troup, Harris and Meriwether Counties.
Several notable persons have come from Coweta county. Ellis Gibbs Arnall was both
an attorney general and governor of Georgia in the Talmadge era. He worked to
make Georgia the first state to lower the voting age to 18 and was also successful
in repealing the poll tax. Other famous Cowetans include the late columnist and
author Lewis Grizzard and novelist Erskine Caldwell (both of whom were from Moreland),
football great Drew Hill, author Margaret Ann Barnes, and country superstars Doug
Stone and Alan Jackson.
Coweta County's many festivals and special events include the Homemade Ice Cream
Festival in historic downtown Newnan, the Taste of Newnan, the Old Town Sharpsburg
Spring & Fall Festivals, the Senoia Progressive Dinner & Tour of Homes, Grantville
Days, the Lewis Grizzard Bike Ride, the Puckett Station Arts Crafts Festival,
and July 4th BBQ and the Powers Crossroads Country Fair and Arts Festival, which
is held Labor Day weekend.
This information is from Georgia
History on the Georgia GenWeb Archives
County History: On Feb. 12, 1825, a group of Creek Indians led by William McIntosh
signed the Treaty of Indian Springs, in which they ceded all of their remaining
lands in present-day Georgia. Subsequently, in an act of June 9, 1825, the General
Assembly provided that the land ceded by the treaty be divided into five sections,
surveyed into districts and land lots, and distributed by land lottery (Ga. Laws
1825 Extra. Session., p. 3). On Dec. 14, 1826, the legislature redesignated the
five land sections as the counties of Lee, Muscogee, Troup, Coweta, and Carroll
and provided for their organization (Ga. Laws 1826, p. 57). Additionally, the
act provided that part of southern DeKalb County was transferred to Coweta County.
Despite the fact that the five counties were not named until Dec. 14, 1826, the
date their respective boundaries were established -- June 9, 1825 -- is generally
accepted as the date of their creation. Because the five counties were provided
for in the same act, their order of creation is based on the order they were mentioned
in the act -- Lee, Muscogee, Troup, Coweta, and Carroll. Thus, Lee was Georgia's
61st county, while Coweta was the 64th county.
Coweta County was named for the Coweta Indians, a group of Creek Indians that
lived in and around Coweta, one of the largest and most important towns of the
Lower Creek Indians. The Lower Creeks had two capital towns. Located near the
western banks of the Chattahoochee River across from present-day Fort Benning
(in what today in Russell County, Alabama), Coweta was the "red" capital -- which
meant that all discussions of war or conflict took place here. Across the river
in Georgia was Cusseta, the "white" capital reserved for non-hostile matters,
such as peaceful negotiations with whites.
Portions of Coweta County were used to create Campbell County (1828) and Heard
County (1830).
The Dec. 11, 1826 act naming and organizing Coweta County provided that the first
election of county officials take place on the first Monday in May 1827 at the
house of James Caldwell (Ga. Laws 1826, p. 57). After that election, the justices
of the county's inferior court were authorized to select a site for the county
seat and provide for erection of a courthouse and other public buildings. However,
until a county seat was designated, Coweta County superior and and inferior courts
were to meet at the house of James Caldwell.
On Dec. 20, 1828, the legislature designated Newnan county seat and incorporated
it as a town (Ga. Laws 1828, p. 149). [On Dec. 26, 1823, the General Assembly
had designated another town by the name of Newnan as county seat of Pike County.
However, in 1825, the legislature moved Pike's county seat to Zebulon, after which
Newnan vanished as a town.] Newnan was named for Gen. Daniel Newnan (1780-1851),
who was Georgia's Secretary of State at the time Coweta County was created.
James Caldwell's house served as the initial courthouse of Coweta County. In 1828,
Newnan was designated county seat, and a log courthouse was built here that year.
This was replaced by a two-story brick courthouse in 1829. This building was torn
down and replaced by the present courthouse in 1904. The structure was refurbished
in 1975, retaining principal design features. The courthouse's interior and exterior
were rehabilitated in 1989-90.
See Also: Georgia
History on the Georgia GenWeb Archives
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