The Town Crier: 1879

Published 8:00 am Saturday, July 31, 2021

If you’ve read this column for a while you know the Town Crier likes history and likes maps. Well guess what? The Town Crier found a new (to him) historical map! Whitfield County from 1879.

By looking at these old maps you can learn a lot about what life was like back then, the names of families living here and even what kind of businesses were in operation. In most cases the roads are the same, although there aren’t as many.

In other cases there are areas or communities that have more people back then than they do now, and in other instances there are places where no houses are that are neighborhoods now.

This map makes a great snapshot of our community 140 years ago, a time from which no person from then now exists.

Not a lot going on

First, let’s see what the situation was in 1879. It was only 14 years since the end of the Civil War. Think about what you were doing 14 years ago in 2007. Doesn’t seem that long ago, does it?

Reconstruction, the federal military occupation of the South after the Civil War, had just ended two years before.

During Reconstruction blacks had gained the right to vote and had served in Congress, in state legislatures, as judges and sheriffs, and had gained economic benefits.

Post-Reconstruction, white-dominated state governments in the South would introduce a new era of segregation. Three years before, in 1876, the USA turned 100 and there were great celebrations and patriotism. But 1876 also saw Custer’s Last Stand at the Battle of the Little Big Horn when western plains Indians wiped out Custer’s 7th Cavalry.

In 1879, the West was still wild. The telephone was already invented but not in wide use yet, and Edison was demonstrating the first electric light bulb that would last just over 13 hours before burning out.

1879 was the last year of an economic depression and so not a lot was going on that year. Now let’s take a look at Whitfield County and get a bird’s-eye view of the place we call home on a typical afternoon in 1879.

Militia districts

The first thing you spot about the map is the perfect circle in the middle that is Dalton’s city limits. When Dalton was founded, the city was laid out in a circle and in 1879 it was still without any annexations. Looking at a map of Dalton’s city limits now you can just spot a curve here and there that is left from the original limits.

The map has the main streets of Dalton but not their names. Many of the roads leading out of Dalton are immediately recognizable. There are more roads now, and we have the additions of the interstate and the bypass as well as some roads that were built up like Walnut Avenue, but almost all the roads on the map are still there today.

The map has a series of names for various areas of the county. These are named and numbered and were designated as militia districts for the state of Georgia.

Militia districts were set up from the very beginning when the colony of Georgia was started. As land and counties were added, so were militia districts. The idea was that each militia district would have at least one company of 63 men with the governor being the commander in chief.

Originally the militia district names changed constantly as they were named after the captain of that district. In the early 1800s the districts were numbered and then named. The Georgia Militia formed in 1733, and the last year of the state militia was 1879, the year of our map. Some of these area names we still use but some I’ve never heard anyone say.

The furthest north district in the county was Red Clay. To the northeast section it was the Upper Tenth. Below that, logically, was the Lower Tenth, around Prater’s Mill, and below that the Ninth around Dawnville.

Under Red Clay was Varnell, and then, southwest of Varnell was Tunnel Hill, and what I usually hear these days called West Side was the militia district of Trickum.

The Dalton militia district was in the middle around Dalton, and on the west side of Dug Gap was the Mill Creek district. Southeast of Dalton, to the Conasauga River, was the Fincher district, in the southeast part of the county was the Tilton district and in the southwest part of the county was the Cove City district.

That gave Whitfield in 1879 the ability to supply a minimum of 12 companies of 63 men each between the ages of 18 and 45 for the Georgia Militia.

The local militia was supposed to train regularly at designated muster grounds. Units of the Georgia Militia fought in the American Revolution (when Georgia was first a state and not a colony) up through various Indian campaigns, the War of 1812 and the Civil War. The Georgia Militia even served outside the country in the Mexican-American War.

Many post offices

In 1879 it was harder to get around. The train ran through the middle of the county on a couple of different railroads, but everything else was by horse or walking.

As such, there were several post offices then that we don’t have now. In the southernmost part of the county was Cove City P.O. Due east of Dalton, just over halfway to Murray County, was the Cedar Ridge P.O. West of Dalton, on the other side of the mountain on the way to Walker County was the Trickum P.O.

At Lower Kings Bridge where the road crosses into Murray County there was Norton’s P.O., and to the north at the next river crossing at Upper Kings Bridge was the Beaverdale P.O. There wasn’t a P.O. listed at Varnell or Tunnel Hill or Tilton, all good-sized communities at the time that you would think would need a local post office.

Female owned

Many houses had the owner’s name listed. One thing that struck me was all the “Mrs.” so-and-sos listed. A very large number of the houses and property were female owned. I wondered if this was a result of widows from the Civil War, or were these older ladies that were outliving their husbands, since that’s the general longevity trend.

There were several properties whose owners were named using a military title. For example, there were several captains, such as Captains Horne, Barker, Robinson and Bowie, and several colonels, including Colonels Thomas, Boyd and Cook. I don’t know if these were officers from the Civil War armies or officers of the current militia units.

Doctors were listed, such as Drs. Raushenberg, Groves, Wade and Marshall, and they were scattered throughout the county.

Another title included was “squire,” such as Squires Varnell, Headrick and Farnsworth. The use of squire in the 1800s would designate a lawyer or a justice of the peace.

A healthy spiritual life

Churches were clearly marked and dotted throughout the county. Many of the churches from 1879 still exist today, demonstrating a healthy spiritual life for our community.

Schools were also scattered about, marked as “school” or “school house,” and south of town there was an Arbor Hill Academy, and one school was named Payne’s School House.

Mills were another item marked and there were lots of them scattered all over the county. There may have been more mills than churches.

I’m not sure exactly what kind of mills they were, as I spotted only one marked “saw mill,” and one south of town along the railroad tracks was listed as “steam mill.”

Lakes and spring ponds were on the map with a few of them listed as “fish pond.” Any pond or lake in the area was probably man-made. And “tan yards” were also marked with a distinct emblem and located at various points of the compass.

One surprising enterprise that was shown were two copper mines and two iron mines, all in the north end of the county. One iron mine looks like it’s pretty close to where I live now. And to aid transportation and business there were apparently five bridges over the river into Murray County with several more places to cross either by ferry or ford.

Just north of Dalton, close to where it is now located but closer to the railroad, was the fairgrounds. The thing that stands out about that is there was apparently a race track for horse racing. I don’t know how regular that was but it was big enough that they built a track.

Two other items of note were “camp grounds.” One was in the northwest of the county and described as “Marston’s Old Camp Ground,” and the other was where Pleasant Grove School and church are now and was listed as “Pleasant Grove Camp Grounds.” In the 1800s religious “camp meetings” were popular where folks would come and camp out for several days and have ongoing services, so this might be what those sites were for.

One other point noted on the map states, “Spot where Mormon Standing was killed July 1879” west of Varnell near the county line. This event had just occurred at the making of the map and so was marked.

The map is online (the Whitfield-Murray Historical Society also sells the map at 715 Chattanooga Ave., Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.) and is an interesting way to spend a few minutes looking over it to see “the way things were …”

Mark Hannah, a Dalton native, works in video and film production.