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From: "Suzy-Q" <>
Subject: [GATROUP] Troup Co, GA History
Date: Sun, 8 Feb 2004 20:34:27 -0800


I like to read history of the areas where my ancestors lived, and add to my
scrapbooks....it is especially nice to find info about the area at
the actual time my family lived there........

The following, I found on Troup Co....contributed by the LaGrange Chamber
of Commerce......maybe you will find a little tid-bit for your family,
also....

Suzy.........

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

http://www.lagrangechamber.com/common/content.asp?PAGE=314&CONTENT=464

History of Troup County.......

For a long time no one lived in America, although many animals roamed the
land. A bridge of land connected America with Asia. (Now the Bering Strait
separates them.) Then there were Indians who wandered over the land bridge
that connected America with Asia. Very probably they first left Asia in
search of animals for food. Archaeologists set this time as long ago as
20,000 years.

Not all the Indians came at once. Slowly, they spread throughout North and
South America. And for thousands of years they lived by hunting. Gradually,
they began to raise corn, beans, potatoes, squash, and other plants. With
farming they did not have to hunt so much and, thus, they had time to build
more permanent homes and towns and to develop arts and crafts such as
basketry, weaving, and pottery. They began to hold regular religious
ceremonies and to organize government. As time went on, they developed
distinctive ways of life. The Cherokee and Creek Indian Nations settled in
the territory that now is Georgia. The Cherokee occupied the highlands and
the Creek, the south.

The Creek Indians lived in rectangular houses with thatched roofs and
plaster walls. They sometimes built their houses around a central area which
included a council house, ball field, and large earth pyramids with temples
on top. The people lived by raising crops, hunting, and fishing.

In 1733, only 42 years before the Revolutionary War, James Oglethorpe, with
114 colonists, arrived from England at Yamacraw Bluff (now the present site
of Savannah, Georgia) and founded a colony which he named Georgia for King
George, II of England. Over a period of time, numbers of colonists were sent
to Georgia by King George. More than 1,000 settlers came at their own
expense.

In 1733, in the first treaty between the Creek Nation and the United States
Government, white settlers in Georgia were invited "to make use and possess
all those lands which the Nation hath not occasion to use." The Creek
Indians were friendly toward the colonists.

And in 1778, three men, Button Gwinett, Lyman Hall, and George Walton,
signed the Declaration of Independence for Georgia. In 1788, the Georgia
Legislature ratified the United States Constitution, making Georgia the 4th
state to ratify it.

After the 1733 treaty, the Creek Nation established its capitol city at
Indian Springs, Georgia, and their government consisted of representatives
from about fifty Creek towns. The Indian population was as much as forty to
fifty thousand. With the passing of time the Indians of the Creek Nation
needed money to purchase arms and tools. They raised their own food and
traded pottery and furs for barter; but they had no money. Repeated ceding
of Indian territory to the United States Government for the State of Georgia
brought the funds but also an increasing dissatisfaction among some of the
tribes. Finally, the Creek National Assembly passed an enactment that no
further cession of territory would be made except by its unanimous consent,
pledging the lives of the chief or chiefs involved as forfeit for the
violation of the agreement. There was another cession, one which gave to
the State of Georgia that part of Creek Indian territory which now is Troup
County. This treaty cost the president and head chief of the Creek Nation
his life.

George Michael Troup was Governor of Georgia from 1823 to 1827. During
Governor Troup's administration the treaty with the Creek Nation was
negotiated by the United States Government for the cession of the territory
of which Troup County now is a part. The treaty was signed at Indian
Springs, Georgia, on February 12, 1825, by commissioners on the part of the
United States Government and by William McIntosh, President and Head Chief
of the Creek Nation. This territory, which included the land between the
Flint and Chattahoochee Rivers, was purchased for the State of Georgia for
$400,000 and other considerations.

After signing the February 12, 1825, treaty, William McIntosh remained at
Indian Springs to settle his personal affairs and to accumulate his personal
belongings. In August of 1825 he returned to McIntosh Reserve, his home in
Carroll County, Georgia. A number of Indian Chiefs awaited him and in
accordance with Creek Law, they executed him. Chief McIntosh had violated
the enactment that no further cession of territory would be made except by
unanimous consent of all members of the Assembly.

After the signing of the 1825 treaty, the State of Georgia under Governor
Troup's direction began surveying work to subdivide the territory into land
districts and land lots in preparation for the establishment of counties.
Five counties were formed, one of which was Troup County.

The original Troup County contained twelve land districts with 3,146 land
lots. "That all that land lying between said rivers, and known as the Third
Section, shall form one county to be called Troup" is a quote from the Act
of the General Assembly of Georgia dated December 11, 1826, which further
identifies Troup County. Troup County, which received its name from Governor
George Michael Troup, was opened for settlement in 1827. The land lots were
distributed by lottery to the citizens of organized counties of Georgia. The
eligibility qualification was three years of residency in the state.
Revolutionary soldiers and those who served in the Indian wars, as well as
widows of such soldiers, were entitled to an extra free draw in the land
lottery of 1827.

Settlers, drawn by stories of the fertile soil and pure water, the virgin
forest, the wild game and the friendly Indians, traveled by wagon and on
foot into the new territory. Much of the land in Troup County was very
rugged and very rich. The County was rapidly settled, not by poor people,
but by well-to-do planters from eastern Georgia who opened large cotton
plantations. They came into possession of land by lottery grants or
purchases from grantees. Many of the early settlers were people of education
and property and brought with them into the wilderness that was Troup County
tools, cattle, slaves, and household furnishings.

Almost immediately they began to plan for schools and churches. Soon there
were two institutions for the education of women - LaGrange Female College
and Southern Female College. No other county in the state gave more
attention to education, especially to the education of women. Brownwood was
the school for men. One of the first buildings was a Methodist church. The
Baptist and Presbyterian were strong denominations as early as 1835. By 1830
Troup County had a population of 6,000.

LaGrange (land lot 109) was incorporated on December 16,1828. In a town
meeting, called for the purpose of naming the county seat, by unanimous vote
the members of this small settlement chose LaGrange as the name in honor of
the estate of the Marquis de LaFayette in France. A French soldier and
statesman, LaFayette had earned the love and respect of Americans through
his service to the United States during the American Revolution. He spent
much of his personal time and fortune to aid the United States. LaFayette
was the guest of the United States Government from September 1824 until
December 1825 and during this time he spent two weeks in Georgia with
Governor George M. Troup serving as his official host.

West Point was settled 1828-29 and was first an Indian trading post called
Franklin, incorporated 1831. The name was changed to West Point in 1832 when
it became the western terminus of a railroad.

Traders, travelers, and settlers moving into East Alabama and westward found
West Point an important Chattahoochee River crossing. West Point is only a
few miles down river from the Oakfuskee Trading Path on which the ancient
Creek towns of Ocfuskoochee and Ocfuskeenene were located. The latter town
is known historically as the Burnt Village, destroyed by whites in 1793.

Hogansville
Hogansville received its name from William Hogan who at one time owned a
large part of the site of the town. Early history records Hogansville as a
community built around the churches, schools, and a mill on Yellow Jacket
Creek.
The town was incorporated on October 12, 1870, long after it was recognized
as a business center.

Mountville
Mountville was so named because it is the most elevated spot in Troup
County- a little city set upon a hill.
Many believe Mountville to be the oldest settlement in Troup County,
although it was not incorporated as a town until November 28, 1897.

Troup County had its beginning in a fierce contest between the United States
Government and the Creek Nation. Much blood was shed, and many settlers and
Indians lost their lives in the day-by-day struggles between the red and
white man over the possession of the land in Georgia.

In the almost 100 years from 1733, when James Oglethorpe came to Georgia ,
to 1827, the powerful Creek Indian Nation had ceded the last acre held by
them in Georgia and withdrawn from the State under the pressures of the
government and the planters and farmers who moved onto the land.


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