Georgia Natural Wonder #203 - Vann House - Spring Place Mission - Murray County. 888

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Georgia Natural Wonder #203 - Chief Vann House - Spring Place Mission - Murray County

Not so much a Natural Wonder, but a place of great wonder of human spirit as Georgia attempted to desegregate with the Cherokee Indians, before we just shipped them off to Oklahoma. We covered the New Echota site with our last post GNW #202. This really is one of the prettiest and most historical valley's in Georgia.


From the Fort Mountain Overlook. We came to Chatsworth with GNW #34 Fort Mountain.


Looking toward the Cohutta Wilderness from the Fort Mountain overlook with Hendrix, the damn good dog.

We added a tangent on the history of Gordon County with our last post, and we had some future county wonders to conclude our county tangents (GNW # 244) and (GNW # 245). For now we travel to Murray County and our next stop on this Highway 225 Trail Of Tears.

Chief Vann House

The Chief Vann House is the first brick residence in the Cherokee Nation, and has been called the "Showplace of the Cherokee Nation". Owned by the Cherokee Chief James Vann, the Vann House is a Georgia Historic Site on the National Register of Historic Places and one of the oldest remaining structures in the northern third of the state of Georgia. It is located in Murray County, on the outskirts of Chatsworth in northwest Georgia, which has a commanding view of the land around it and of the Cohutta Mountains, about 10 miles to the east.


TRD images of Vann House.

Mr. James Vann developed quite a reputation as a fierce man, particularly when he had been drinking which was very often. Nevertheless, in 1793 he was called upon by U.S. Government Indian Agents to clear the Cherokee lands of thieves and other white men who were causing trouble. He continued in this "police" action until his death. James Vann killed many white men in duels or to enforce his authority over them. One account reports that he murdered Georgia militiaman Leonard Rice and most sources reveal that he was very strict on his workers, whites as well as slaves. He once whipped his overseer Mr. Crawford 100 strokes and tried to shoot another employee, Mr. Giger, on another occasion. He also had an overseer named Bohing at one time. His most violent action came in 1805 against a slave named Isaac. Isaac and three other blacks (two were Bob and Peter) stole $3,500 from Vann's money chest upon the instigation of a white visitor named Spencer, along with Mr. Bowen. When Isaac was captured he was burned alive while the others were shot or "strung up in a tree." Earlier, Vann had abused an elder chief and even shot his own uncle under terms of an old Cherokee blood law which demanded revenge.


Last TRD image.

Vann hired a German named Vogt to design his new house, a house which would rival any house within the bounds of the Cherokee nation, a house on the scale of others Vann had seen in the east during his many travels. So while the Moravians were attempting to build their own dwellings and a school, Vann asked them to help instruct his slaves and other Indians in how to build his new brick house. All Moravians were excellent craftsmen and he must have been pleased at his choice of missionary teachers to come to his town. The work on the house began late in 1803 with most of the work being done in 1804. The Vanns moved into the newly completed house in March, 1805. Everything used in building the house was made on the site except the glass for the windows which was shipped from Savannah.



Both the exterior walls (which are around eighteen inches thick) and the interior walls (about eight inches thick) are solid brick. These bricks came from the red clay located on the Spring Place Plantation (Vann House) property. The handwrought nails and hinges used in construction came from Vann's blacksmith shop. Only the interior walls of the third floor are plaster on wood.



The lead brick mason of this house, Robert Henry Howell, was born in Virginia and died in 1834. He is buried at the nearby Moravian cemetery in Spring Place, Georgia. He also built the McNair house and the foundation of the Hildebrand house.



The house is a combination of late Federal-style architecture and early Georgian style. It has two full stories with a third half story: the ceilings of both the first and second floor stand at twelve feet, while the roof of the third floor stands at only six feet.



The first and second floors have the standard three rooms. On both levels, there is a room to the east, to the west, and a hallway dividing the two. On the first level, the dining room is to the east, while the west room is the drawing-room, more commonly referred to as a family or living room. On the second floor, the east room is the master bedroom, and the west room is the guest bedroom. Only the third floor, which operated as storage space during James's life and then as children's rooms during Joseph's life, strays from this typical design.



Climbing the stairs to the third floor and you can see two rooms. The room the stairway leads into on the third floor is believed to have served as the boys' room. This room is two-thirds the width of the home and has two closets cut into its walls. The second room on the third floor is the girls'. It is only one-third the width of the home; however, this room could be shut off from the boys' room, giving the girls more privacy.



The Vann House also features a basement with two separate rooms, one of which served as a wine cellar. The other is assumed to have been a chamber for misbehaving slaves, to whom James Vann was known to be exceptionally cruel.



Decorated in red, blue, green, and yellow, the interior of the home is a timeless masterpiece. White is used throughout the house but only as a filler color. There are two possible reasons for these four colors in the home. The first possibility is that these four colors represent different elements of nature. Red represents the Georgia red clay, blue represents the sky, green represents the trees and grass, and yellow represents the wheat and corn of the harvest. The second possibility is that these four colors are part of Federal-style colors.



These colors are popular in other homes of the late 1700s and early 1800s. The difference between the use of these colors in the Vann House versus other dwellings of the time is color distribution. Most homes of the Federal period would concentrate colors in one room, giving a house a red room, blue room, etc. However, in the Vann House, the colors have been mixed in almost every room, which gives a multi-color appearance. This color scheme is present on the mantels, doorjambs, and wainscottings, all of which are original to the house.



The house's doors, known as Christian doors, are of particular interest. Their details feature a cross and an open Bible.



In addition to the blacksmith shop, the 800-acre grounds contained 42 slave cabins, 6 barns, five smokehouses, a trading post, more than 1,000 peach trees, 147 apple trees, and a still.



However, James Vann did not get to enjoy his fine "Showplace of the Cherokee Nation" very long for his life was nearing its end. In 1807 or 1808 James killed his brother-in-law, John Falling, in a duel near Spring Place. Some say the duel came about after James abused his mother and beat his sister (Falling's wife) while she was with child. Another source mentions that Falling had been involved in the theft ring which had resulted in Isaac's death. Whatever the cause, the following account of the duel was recorded later:


Original image Digitally enhanced.

Vann met Falling. He charged him with Treachery. Words ensued. A challenge passed. Such an instance never before occurred in the nation; nor has it ever occurred since. The parties agreed !o meet at a certain cross path, where four roads intersect. They were to be armed at their own choice. Vann had a long French musquet, Falling a double bundled fowling piece; each were loaded with 21 buck shot; each well mounted. At the hour fixed, each started at a full gallop. When they caught view of each other, each gave the war whoop, as they dashed onward. Their horses heads neatly struck together, ere they fired. The guns went off almost on the same instant. Vann's horse gave a slight dodge, and the charge grazed Vann as it passed. Falling dropped dead.



It caused much excitement and it was thought prudent that Vann should not be seen until the excitement could have time to cool.


Chief Vann Motel no longer in Chatsworth.

The Cherokee Council, for reasons not known, considered that the duel was unfair, and decreed that the killing was murder, and that James Vann should pay with his life. According to Cherokee custom, when an execution was pronounced, the Cherokee Council appointed an executioner whose identity was known only to them. But according to custom, the executioner was usually a kinsman of the victim of the "crime" that had been committed. According to Moravian records, however, the man appointed to kill James Vann was Mr. Alex Saunders, whose kin, if any to John Fawling is not known. The Moravian records state: "On the 19th of Feb. Our neighbor, Mr. James Vann, was shot in Thomas Buffington's house about 56 miles from here. It is not known definitely who shot him, but everyone thinks it was Mr. Alex Saunders formerly Mr. Vann's best friend, who had become his enemy. Mr. Vann had said many harsh things about him, and had abused him that very evening. So the end has come to this man, far famed, little beloved, and greatly feared by the entire Cherokee Nation. His end was sudden, for no sign of life showed after he was shot.While riding patrol, Further speculation suggests his shooting was organized by his sister, who felt that his drunkenness threatened their family's safety.


This image shows the location of Chief James Van's Gravesite in relation to Old Federal Highway.


2.2 miles southeast from Yellow Creek Road. On the north side of Old Federal Highway. Overall cemetery is in very bad shape.  There is no sign but there is a gate but it is locked.


Chief Vann's marker is in the best shape than all the rest.

After constructing the Vann House, James lived in it for five years before his murder at Buffington's Tavern in 1809. After his death, his favorite child, Rich Joe Vann, neither his youngest nor eldest child, inherited the house.



His Nephew was David Vann (Cherokee leader) an ancestor of Will Rogers.


David Vann.

Rich Joe's Vann House

After Rich Joe's father died, he made improvements and changes to the new house. After Rich Joe took control of the home, he commissioned and paid for decorating the house between 1809 and 1818.



Rich Joe hired a father and son construction crew for this work. In 1818, John McCartney and his son James arrived at the Vann House and began their work. The McCartneys added all of the current woodwork in the house, including ionic columns. They also built the house's most unusual piece of architecture, a floating staircase in the hallway of the third floor. It is said to be "floating" or "hanging," because the second landing of the stairs sits over the first-floor hall with no visible supports, with the illusion that the landing is hanging or floating in midair.



The Vann stairway is one of the oldest examples of cantilevered construction in Georgia. On one side of the main entrance, which initially faced the Federal Road, and works as a set of scales for weight distribution. The staircase, suspended over the first-floor hallway, roughly six inches of the opposite side of the stairway, is in a solid brick wall. The brick wall is far denser than the second landing; this means there will never be enough weight on the landing to "tip the scale."



In 1819, President James Monroe and his three men were on a trip from Augusta to Nashville. They intended to spend the night in the Spartan Moravian mission at Spring Place. Instead, President Monroe went to a nearby location, The Vann House, which he found more comfortable than the mission, so he asked Rich Joe permission to spend the night. Rich Joe was 20 years old when he met President Monroe.

Eviction of Rich Joe and seizure of Vann House.



After the Georgia Gold Rush, Rich Joe hired a white man, a Mr. Howel, to run Vann House. Although he never actually worked for Vann, the Cherokee had unknowingly violated a new Georgia law forbidding whites from working for Cherokees without a permit. Leading up to the Cherokee Trail of Tears, Rich Joe and his family were caught amid the struggle between two opposing claims for the house. Colonel William Bishop and the infamous Georgia Guard tried to take over the house on the grounds of his hiring a white man without a permit.


Bishop's claim paper.

Spencer Riley, who claimed to have won the house in the Land Lottery of 1832, known as the Sixth Georgia Land Lottery, claimed the house at the same time. Colonel Bishop then evicted Rich Joe.


Rich Joe really spiffed the place up before he left.

Colonel Bishop used the house as his local headquarters and permitted his brother, Absalom Bishop, to live there. Riley then took action on his claim and settled in the house. To get rid of Riley, Bishop took a smoldering log and threw it on the cantilevered steps to smoke him out, causing some damage to the house. This action had its intended effect, and Bishop's brother returned to the home.


Burn marks on the Vann House's stairs where Colonel Bishop placed a smoldering log in an attempt to smoke out Spencer Riley.

Although Vann and his family lost their home and property, he later sued for the loss and was awarded $19,605 by the government as compensation, which was nearly double its value of $10,000 at the time.



In November of that year, Colonel Bishop imprisoned John Howard Payne for 13 days on the grounds of the house. Payne, noted as a composer of "Home, Sweet Home", had been charged with sedition for supporting the claims of the Cherokee over the state of Georgia.



Joseph Vann's family was expelled from the Vann House for violating one of the many new State laws prohibiting Indians from engaging in certain business arrangements. They fled to Tennessee.

Restoration of the Vann House

Rich Joe and his family were finally forced out of the house in March 1835 and moved to Webbers Falls, Oklahoma by following the Trail of Tears. They never returned to Georgia or their house.



Over the years, the Vann House has had seventeen different owners. In 1952, J. E. Bradford, a physician who had purchased it in 1920, sold it to the Georgia Historical Commission and the State of Georgia. The house was in such a severe state of disrepair that the roof had come off, and the elements were taking their toll.



One of the owners had added a room after Rich Joe left Georgia. A restoration project began in 1958.



It took six years to complete, and included demolishing this additional room that was not present in the original house and repainting the home according to its classic color scheme.



Today it is administered by the Parks, Recreation, and Historic Sites division of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.



We squeeze in another Indian Georgia Natural (History) Wonder with this post and a tangent on the history of Murray County. Today's first set of Georgia Natural Wonder Gals are women in Vanns.





As a bonus Natural Wonder for Murray County, we focus on the Springplace Mission. Despite his fierce temper and drinking problem, James Vann did care for his mother's people, the Cherokees. He hated to see them robbed and mistreated by white intruders. He was also concerned for their education. While on a business trip to the eastern coastal cities, including Washington, D.C., he met a group of Moravian Missionaries from Salem, North Carolina. Impressed with their dedication and desire to work among the Cherokees, he promised them support - financially and physically - if they would come to Georgia and establish a school for the Cherokee children.



Vann took the plan to the other chiefs and persuaded them to allow the establishment of a mission on James Vann's property.



In 1801 the Moravians, a Pietist German-speaking group from Central Europe, founded the Springplace Mission at a site in present-day northwestern Georgia. The Moravians remained among the Cherokees for more than thirty years, longer than any other Christian group. John and Anna Rosina Gambold served at the mission from 1805 until Anna’s death in 1821.



The Moravians were installed in two small cabins which were being vacated by a Mr. Brown and located about 1& miles from Diamond Hill between James Vann's field and his mother's field near a limestone spring. Vann promised them some new buildings and the Moravians were pleased with the arrangement—until they found that Vann was planning to build a still on the spring a short distance from the missionaries' cabins.



They asked Vann about building their new mission complex on a hill just west of their present spot and he agreed, but to the missionaries' dismay, Vann soon had plans made to build a new house for himself on the hill. The missionaries then were given land a short distance southeast of the proposed spot for their mission. They were not displeased at being a distance from the home of Vann.



Meanwhile the Moravians had begun their school which also pleased James Vann. In sponsoring the school, Vann contributed greatly to the education of the many men who would lead the Cherokees through their most trying hours in the next two decades. Although the Moravians were interested in making Christian converts, this was difficult since the spirits of James Vann were in such close proximity.



The Moravians named the mission complex Springplace or "place of many springs" due to the large number of excellent streams in the area. The town which sprang up after Vann moved his family nearby was soon going by the name of Vann's Town. Vann reigned both as plantation owner and master as well as a town chief over the area. He had increased his wealth until he owned over 4,000 acres of land as well as operating taverns, stores, a grist mill, a sawmill, a blacksmith shop, ferries, and other types of businesses throughout the Cherokee nation. Many of his business ventures were located on the Old Federal Road, built in 1805 under his sponsorship. While the other chiefs voiced protest about building a road through the Cherokee lands, James Vann forced it through the Council - the road would be very advantageous to his businesses. His Diamond Hill complex became known as Vann's "Old Town."



An imported enterprise, Springplace Mission not only mirrored western values but also showed how those very values intersected with and affected Cherokee sensibility.Though Anna Rosina’s prime duty was to train Cherokee children in the “arts of civilization,” the internal mission discourse ultimately reflected the intensity of disparate cultural contacts. The physicality of place allowed common ground where Cherokees and missionaries interacted and conversed.


Sample School 100 years later.

Those intense exchanges occurred

In the mission school,
In the barn that accommodated livestock and Christian services,
In the Gambold residence that quartered female students,
In separate housing for males,
In the kitchen where the Moravians’ slave, Pleasant, and her son, Michael, resided,
In the fields and gardens that provided produce for the missionaries, visitors, and Moravian students.



Without assistance from human agency, the Gambolds were mere agents of the Holy Spirit, while the Holy Spirit sought out “single souls” that Christ would choose for salvation. Even if chosen for membership, “single souls” had to endure the tricky process of the lot. Then a convert still had other obstacles. In reality, the use of the lot promoted a “closed society” atmosphere, resembling a “club” with membership dependent upon social acceptance. The Gambolds employed severe means to determine the convert’s sincerity before administering sacraments, especially Holy Communion.



Unlike eighteenth-century Moravian missionaries, the Gambolds were especially interested in converting prominent Cherokees because it would assure their staying power in the Cherokee Nation. The high profile of the Cherokees who did convert had a profound influence on the events in the Cherokee Nation and in the lives of the missionaries as well.



On August 13, 1810, the missionaries witnessed the “first fruit” of their labors, the conversion of Margaret Ann (Peggy) Vann Crutchfield, the widow of Moravian patron and Cherokee leader James Vann.



Charles Hicks, the uncle of Peggy Vann Crutchfield, attended her baptismal rites. Later he himself expressed an interest in becoming a Moravian. Hicks was baptized April 16, 1813, with the baptismal name Charles Renatus. A bilingual businessman, Hicks was also an interpreter for federal agents and missionaries, and he promoted education, commerce, and acculturation in general. In 1817 the National Council chose Hicks second principal chief and in 1827, principal chief.



His presence at the Springplace services made missionaries intimately aware of Cherokee concerns and lent the mission effort credibility among the Cherokees. Many of the Cherokee students at Springplace had extensive kin connections throughout the nation including sometimes family ties with Hicks and his niece Peggy.



Crutchfields also had hand in mission closer to Calhoun.



Anna Rosina Gambold recorded matters pertaining to the Cherokees’ concept of land, Cherokee body ornaments, food preparation and consumption, conjuring, Cherokee law and punishment, and matriarchal and marriage traditions. Further, she recorded stories the missionaries had heard about rainmaking and about the origins of the Cherokee people, and she conversed with curious Cherokees about Christian images and fixtures. Her very disapproval of Cherokee spirituality piqued her own curiosity enough to record what she heard and saw inside the familiarity of the mission.



Cherokees’ Concept of Land and Land Values However Indians had conceived of land and their own sense of its value, land hungry settlers aided by elected officials in the newly established republican government demanded their right to move westward. Completely disenfranchised by the United States Constitution, Indians lacked voice, and that fact alone left them to the mercy of trespassing settlers. “And so one piece of land goes after the other until they have driven them completely out.” Additionally, Georgia willingly granted identifiable parcels of lands to speculators and opportunists before Indians had the chance to negotiate other terms.



As Cherokees transcended the deceits and vagaries of the Early Republic’s assimilation or “civilization” Indian policies, they became increasingly under pressure to cede land in the East and move west. One Cherokee family, the Ridges, was extraordinarily affected by the “civilization program .” As noted earlier, John Ridge wrote to President James Monroe in 1821 of his parents’ desire to have their children educated. He noted that although his parents were “ignorant of the English Language, but it is astonishing to see them exert all their power to have their Children educated like the whites.”



Many Cherokees like the Ridges proved their willingness to assimilate in order to maintain their homeland; they had accepted missionaries to educate their children and Indian agents to dispense western-style farming equipment and livestock. Furthermore, Cherokees adopted a republican government in 1828 with the election of John Ross as principal chief, reflecting their nationhood and identity within the United States.



But becoming “civilized” was not enough for Andrew Jackson and his constituency. As Elias Boudinot, cousin of John Ridge, remarked: “A desire to possess the Indian Land is paramount to a desire to see him established on the soil as a civilized man.”



The [U.S.] government is certainly disposed in a fatherly way to this poor nation, but it has appointed men who are ignorant of the Indians and whose hearts are not warm with love for their poor neighbors.



In the 1820s Moravian missionary Johannes Renatus Schmidt, who replaced John Gambold, sensed that he should refrain from allowing Moravian records to reveal Cherokee resolve to practice and sustain Cherokee traditions in their lands. In 1824 Schmidt observed that “this [is the] time not to reveal the particulars about Cherokee society: . . . if this is printed and read in the country then it could be seen as if people wanted to put the Nation in bad light, especially since they have already been made to believe that they are an uncivilized people.”



In 1838 Murray County's remaining *** 2,000 Cherokees were forced to depart on the difficult journey to Oklahoma Territory that would become known as "the trail of tears."



On January 20, the Superintendent of Cherokee Removal issued a notice indicating that on February 5th suitable steamboats would be available at Ross'Landing (Chattanooga) and opposite Bellefonte, to take 1,000 people to their new homes in the west. Notice indicated that the boat trips would require 15 days. Those not voluntarily leaving the area by boat prior to a May deadline would be forcibly removed by the military.



The Army built rough stockades of upright logs in which to hold the Cherokees they forcibly removed from their homes until they could be escorted west. The two such forts in present-day Murray County were named Fort Gilmer and Fort Hoskins.



Fort Hoskins was a Georgia state militia stockade, including horse stables, garrisoned from March to June 1838. No remains. Site located near the former Spring Place Moravian Mission, which was located just southwest of the present community.



Fort Gilmer was a Georgia state militia post located at Rock Springs, near the Cherokee town of Coosawattee. Garrisoned by troops from March to June 1838. Barracks and a stockade were built by May 1838. No remains. Site inundated by Carters Lake in 1977. State marker located four miles north of town on Old US 411.



As stories of the conditions of these stockades grew, many Cherokee refused to report to the forts. Conditions were unbelievably horrible. Manned by the "Georgia Guard" who passed their days by tormenting and abusing the Cherokee. Food intended for the captives was sold to settlers, what little the Cherokee had brought with them was stolen and sold. Those Cherokee that refused to report voluntarily to the forts the Georgia Guard considered them renegades and they were hunted down like animals, Fair game to the Guard and soldiers. More than 4,000 of the 16,000 Cherokees forcibly removed from the eastern Cherokee Nation died before reaching their new homes in the west.



General Winfield Scott resided at the Chester Inn in Spring Place while he commanded those involved in the Cherokee removal. Mr Chester was born  May 4, 1801 in Washington County, TN.  He married Mary Snapp, 24 September 1822, Greene Co TN and had 13 children.  He built his first hotel - called the Chester Inn - at Spring Place, Georgia.  He built his second hotel at New Echota.  After the Cherokee were removed west, William P Chester moved to Cross Plains (now Dalton).  There he built his third hotel - The Chester House.


Scott in 1862 and Chester House Hotel, about 1865, as the Federal Troops left it.

John Howard Payne was an American actor, poet, playwright, and author who had nearly two decades of a theatrical career and success in London. He spent time with the Cherokee Indians in the Southeast and interviewed many elders. Intending to write about them, he amassed material about their culture, language and society, which have been useful to scholars. But his published theory that suggested their origin as one of the Ten Lost Tribes of ancient Israel has been thoroughly disproved. At that time, European Americans were still strongly influenced by a Biblical basis of history in trying to understand origins of the peoples in the Americas.



He is today most remembered as the creator of "Home! Sweet Home!", a song he wrote in 1822 that became widely popular in the United States and the English-speaking world. Its popularity was revived during the American Civil War, as troops on both sides embraced it. 

After the Cherokee removal, the Moravians relocated with the tribe in what is now Oklahoma to establish New Springplace near the town of Oaks, Oklahoma.


New Springplace in Oklahoma.



Sometime during the early 19th century, James B. Brackett donated the land upon which the Brackett Indian School was built. The school did not always function as a segregated Indian school. At one point in its previously integrated history it was referred to as the Lone Cherry School.



The Brackett's were a notable Eastern Cherokee family that lived along Brackett's Ridge, amongst several other American Indian families, several of which were also Eastern Cherokee. Most of the Brackett's were forced to leave Georgia during the Trial of Tears earlier in the 19th century; however, some of them returned to Georgia several years later. James Brackett's brother Adam Brackett, along with several other siblings show up on the Dawes Rolls as being enrolled members of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma.

Murray County

History

Before Georgia even existed, various tribes of native Americans occupied present-day Murray County. The Mississippians, a tribe most remembered for building earthen mounds over graves of important tribesmen, are credited with creating the mounds near Carter's Dam. No one knows what early group built the mysterious fort atop Fort Mountain.



The Creeks for a time lived in permanent settlements in present-day Murray County. One such settlement was called Guaxule, near today's Carter's Quarter. By the early 1500s, the Creeks lived primarily in what would eventually become southern Georgia and the Cherokees claimed most of northern Georgia.


More Fort Mountain.

It is highly probable that the first white men to visit present-day Murray County were Spaniards - Hernando DeSoto's band of explorers. In 1540, this group visited Cherokees then living at the old Creek settlement called Guaxule, which Cherokees had renamed Coosawatee. After lingering several days with the Cherokees, DeSoto's group departed to continue their exploration, eventually reaching the Mississippi River.



Cherokee settlements within what eventually became Murray County included Rabbit Trap, approximately 15 miles south of Spring Place, Coosawatee Old Town, some 17 miles south of Spring Place. Just above the junction of the Conasauga and Coosawattee was the Cherokee capital, Ustanali. Seven miles north of Spring Place lay a village named Sumach. To the north-west was the village of Red Clay. Dogwood, Crayfish Town and Chestnut Town all were west of Spring Place. Although Indian trails connected these villages, no roads yet existed in the Cherokee Nation.



During the 1700s a few whites traveled through this region, primarily adventurers, renegades, trappers, traders, and explorers. A few decided to live with the Cherokees. One such Scot trader, James Clement Vann, settled in present-day Spring Place in the late 1700s and quickly established a trading post and a mill. Within a few years Vann owned several stores, taverns, and ferries within the Cherokee nation.



In December, 1832 the Georgia General Assembly designated the extreme northwestern corner of the state as Murray County. Formerly part of Cherokee County. Georgia's 86th county was named for lawyer and legislator Thomas W. Murray (1790-1832) of Lincoln County. Murray, who served as Speaker of the Georgia House of Representatives in 1825, was a candidate for Congress at the time of his death in 1832.



In 1850, The Census of Murray County (which still included present-day Whitfield and Catoosa Counties) reported a population of 12,503 living in 2,047 dwellings. The slave population was put at 1,930. At Tunnel Hill, the first train passed through the just-completed tunnel, considered an impressive engineering feat for the time. Within a short time the legislature found the county was too large to administer properly as the population grew, for the county then included what is now Dade, Walker, Catoosa, Whitfield, Murray, Gordon and parts of Bartow and Chatooga Counties, so further division became necessary.  In 1851, Whitfield County was created from western Murray County. Two years later Catoosa County was created from Whitefield County.



In 1861, Georgia convened delegates from all counties to decide the question of secession. Murray County delegates voted against secession, preferring to maintain the Union. When the votes were counted, Georgia had elected to secede from the Union and join the Confederacy. Because the citizens of Murray County were divided in their loyalties, hundreds of men enlisted to fight for the Confederacy, while hundreds of others enlisted in Federal military units to fight for the Union.



In 1864, two skirmishes between Union and Confederate soldiers took place just to the west of Spring Place, one of which took place on June 25, 1864, with the 8th Michigan Cavalry US.The First Tennessee Cavalry CS also skirmished about 5 miles north of Spring Place on April 19, 1864. Another skirmish took place near Westfield late during the night of August 22, 1864. Captain Woody of the Murray County Home Guard was reported wounded.


Union Army troops occupied nearby Dalton for the winter.

On February 27, 1865, and April 20, 1865, there was a skirmish at Spring Place between Confederates and the 145th Indiana Infantry US. This was followed by a skirmish on Holly Creek on March 1, 1865. By 1865 Spring Place was known as an area occupied by Confederate Guerrillas. During March 20–22, 1865 Union soldiers made an attempt to suppress this activity.


Andersonville always in the back of a Yankee's mind.

In the 1870's, Talc was discovered and first commercially mined in Murray County.



In 1874, the KKK hanged a Negro named Carter Griffin in Spring Place. Few counties in Georgia were untouched by lynchings.



In 1906, after two earlier attempts at building a railroad in Murray County had failed, the Louisville and Nashville line was built to run north to south through the entire length of the county. Murray grew, with new towns developing along the railroad. One of these new towns was named Chatsworth. With the new railroad line in place, timber could be shipped out of the mountains, and talc deposits, discovered in the 1870s, was able to be mined and the ore shipped throughout the country.


Chatsworth Depot then and now.

In 1907, while attempting to arrest an escaped murderer in Eton, Sheriff Ben Keith was shot. He escorted the prisoner to the Spring Place jail before seeing a doctor. The sheriff died of the wounds five days later.


Spring Place Jail today.

The old county seat of Spring Place was bypassed by the railroad. Some Murray County citizens began an effort to move the county seat to the more central and accessible railroad town of Chatsworth.



Much dissention was caused by this effort. A county-wide referendum was held on the matter in 1912, which resulted in Chatsworth being named as the seat of local government, where it remains to present day.



In 1933, the first 150 young men arrived at the Holly Creek Camp of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) to build cabins in which to live.



They then went on to build roads, a dam, two fire towers, and a lake in Fort Mountain State Park. (Camp disbanded in 1941.)



In 1934, Ivan Allen, Sr. donated land to create Fort Mountain State Park.



The road across the mountain connecting Chatsworth and Ellijay was built the same year.



Into the twentieth century, Murray remained predominantly agricultural.



Shortly after World War II the textile industry, prevalent in neighboring Whitfield County, began to move into Murray. Today, the carpet industry is the predominant employer in Murray County.



In 1977, Carter's Dam was completed. The largest earth-filled dam east of the Mississippi created a lake with a shoreline of more than 60 miles and a depth of up to 400 feet.

National Register of Historic Places listings in Murray County, Georgia

Carter's Quarters

Originally the property of the Treasurer of the Cherokee Nation, Judge John Martin, the house was built around 1800. Bowing to the inevitable, Judge Martin, his two wives and their children, emigrated to the West in 1836. Records are unclear as to how many of their 80 slaves they took with them. By going when they did, the Martins were spared the horrors of the forced removal of the Cherokees remaining in present-day Murray County in 1838. Farish Carter obtained the property the following year. Within a decade Carter had bought some 15,000 acres of land in north Georgia. His property in Murray County was the largest single unit, requiring hundreds of slaves to raise wheat, rye, oats, corn, tobacco, peas, beans, potatoes, rice and cotton. The Martin home became the summer residence for the Carter Family.


Cartersville in Bartow County is named after him.

In 1850 Farish Carter reported to the U.S. Census that he owned 403 slaves involved with the operation of his Murray County property, by then called "Carter's Quarter."



The house's 12 rooms feature plaster and pine-paneled walls with wainscoting. The original portion retains its original doors, ornate window casings and hand-carved mantels. Door hardware was wrought iron created on the premises. There is also a cantilevered staircase.



Reflecting the plantation's early association with the Cherokees, the various fields still carry the names used by the Martins in the early 1800s: Wood Fork Field, originally cultivated by Indians using tools that looked like wooden forks; the Race Field, so called because Indians ran races there; Six Toe Field was named for an Indian who had six toes;The Bell Field was named in honor of another wealthy Cherokee; and the Big Martin Field was named in honor of the builder of the original house on the site, Judge Martin. Other fields have less interesting names: the Town Field, Katherine Field, the Coniston Pasture, etc.

Chatsworth Downtown Historic District



The buildings within the commercial area include one- and two-story attached brick buildings and one- and two-story freestanding brick buildings. The buildings represent the Commercial style, the Commercial style with decorative brickwork, and the International style. 



The buildings were constructed along front lot lines and are flush with the sidewalks. The commercial buildings feature flat- and segmental-arched windows, recessed storefronts, and large display windows, and some feature decorative brick detailing along the cornices and above doors and windows.



Landscaping in the district is minimal. Commercial buildings are built along front and side lots lines, adjacent to sidewalks and neighboring buildings. The courthouse square contains foundation plantings, and concrete sidewalks and walkways.



Murray County Courthouse in Chatsworth, Georgia was built in 1916.



It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. It has an elevated position and can be viewed from afar.



A 1980 architectural survey identified it as one of only two Palladian architecture applications among Georgia courthouses. The other is the Old Effingham County Courthouse in Springfield, Georgia.



The survey asserted it "is the most important architectural structure in Chatsworth."

Murray County High School Historic District


Symbol of City and County. Architectural feature High School.



Pleasant Valley Historic District

The Pleasant Valley Historic District is a historic rural, agricultural area located in a valley in the north Georgia mountains. The three main roads in the district are Loughridge Road, which runs east-west through the lower half of the district, Crandall-Ellijay Road, which runs through the eastern portion of the district, and the Old Federal Road, which is part of the western boundary of the district. The western boundary of the district is the CSX rail line and includes a historic 1908 railroad overpass.



Another historic structure in the district is the 1922 Mill Creek Bridge. The district is comprised of historic farmhouses and farmsteads.



Spring Place Historic District


TRD images driving around Spring Place.

In 1845, Spring Place was described in Statistics of the State of Georgia as having "the usual county buildings, two hotels, one academy, four stores, three groceries, one saddler, one carriage maker, two blacksmiths, two tanyards, three lawyers and two physicians."



The town's population stood at 250.



The Georgia General Assembly incorporated Spring Place as a town in 1885.



Wright Hotel is a historic hotel at 201 East Market Street in Chatsworth, in Murray County, Georgia, that was built in 1909.



It is a two-story brick building with two-story porches. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.



Its NRHP nomination notes that the hotel reflects its local, vernacular, do-it-yourself origins.

"Built by its owner-operator, Thomas Monroe Wright, and his cousin, Thomas Banks, a builder from Cleveland, Tennessee, it shows few signs of high style architecture. Local materials were used as much as possible. Bricks were manufactured a few blocks away at the now defunct Chatsworth Brick Company. Timber was cut from Mr. Wright's nearby farm and aged for a year before being used in the hotel construction. The surrounding two-story porches made excellent use of one of the area's greatest resources, cool mountain air. The ten foot deep foundation and twelve inch thick exterior walls reflect the care with which Mr. Wright constructed the building. The hotel's modest scale, simplicity of design and structural solidity give it real integrity. The building no longer functions as a hotel, but it has survived remarkably intact."



Attractions


View of Murray County and Chatsworth from Fort Mountain State Park.


The Chief Vann House Historic Site at Spring Place. Constructed in 1805 for James Vann, a Cherokee chief, the two-story red brick home was built alongside the Federal Road, a major early path in northwest Georgia.


Fort Mountain State Park. A 3,712-acre park in the Cohutta Mountains.

Another major asset is the Chattahoochee National Forest, which occupies a large portion of northeastern Murray County. Within the forest is the Cohutta Wilderness Area, a roadless, mountainous landscape featuring several of Georgia's premier backpacking trails. Oh man, I have featured this wilderness five times in our Wonders so far.

GNW #21 - Jack's River



GNW #30 - Emery Creek



GNW #32 - Mill Creek



GNW #34 - Fort Mountain



GNW #85 - Panther Creek Falls

This is one of my favorite Panoramas and hardest earned.

Carters Lake, on the Coosawatee River, was formed by the Carter Dam, which is the largest earth-rock dam east of the Mississippi.



The 3,200-acre lake attracts fishermen, boaters and campers.



Lake Conasauga located near the summit of Grassy Mountain was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1940 and is the highest lake in Georgia at 3,150 feet above sea level.



Communities

Chatsworth

Chatsworth is the county seat of Murray County and the site of the coldest recorded temperature in Georgia, -17 °F (-27 °C) on January 27, 1940.

Fort Mountain overlooks Chatsworth.

According to a popular legend, the town received its name after a road sign with the word "Chatsworth" fell off a passing freight train nearby. Someone put the sign on a post, and the name stuck. Just east of Chatsworth are Fort Mountain and the Fort Mountain State Park.



Founded in 1905 as a depot on the Louisville and Nashville Railroad. It was incorporated as a town in 1906 and as a city in 1923. In 1915, the seat of Murray County transferred to Chatsworth from Spring Place.



Eton

A post office called Eton has been in operation since 1906.


CCC Camp Road Eaton, Georgia.

The community's name most likely is a transfer from Eton College, in England.


(Kind Of Cool) Church of God in Eton.

Unincorporated communities
   
Carters

Nearby Carters Lake, impounded by Carters Dam, takes its name from the community. The community was named after Farish Carter, the owner of a plantation. The Carters post office was discontinued in 1976. No images found.

Cisco

A post office called Cisco has been in operation since 1881. The community's name is a shortening and alteration of the name of "Cis" Cockburn, a local storekeeper.


Barn in Cisco.
   
Crandall


   
Ramhurst

Ramhurst was first called "Ramsey", after A. K. Ramsey, the proprietor of a local gristmill and country store.





Dennis Mill Ramhurst, Georgia.
   
Spring Place

A post office was established at Spring Place in 1826. The community took its name from Spring Place Mission, a nearby Native American Moravian mission. Spring Place held the county seat of Murray County from 1834 until the seat was transferred to Chatsworth in 1913.



The town's municipal charter was repealed in 1995.
   
Sumac

The community takes its name from nearby Sumac Creek. A variant spelling is "Sumach". A post office called Sumach was established in 1878, and remained in operation until 1907. The town was hit by an EF2 tornado on April 12, 2020, killing eight people in and around the town.


Shooting Range Sumac Creek.
   
Tennga

The border community's name is locational, being a portmanteau of the "Tenn." and "Ga." state abbreviations.


Post Office Tennga.


Motel, half in Georgia and half in Tennessee. Then and Now.

Notable people

Jody Ridley - NASCAR Driver.



Billy Napier - Head Football Coach for the Florida Gators.



Robert L. Vining Jr. - Former Senior United States District Judge.

Clayton King Fauver - Former Major League Baseball Pitcher for Louisville Colonels.


1st Head Football Coach Miami of Ohio.

Ladd McConkey - National Champion Wide Receiver for the Georgia Bulldogs.



Kate Galt Zaneis (1887-1973), educator, was born in Spring Place.



The Story on today's GNW Gals....

We presented the Girls in Vanns earlier on this post, that was before I separated the Vann House from Gordon County to Murray County. I was looking for girls with springs (Spring Place), which turned to Slinky's, then shock absorbers. Once I got to Auto Parts, there was no turning back. Today's bonus GNW Gals are springy in so many ways for Spring Place.



With these last two post and the five post from the Cohutta Wilderness, we have seven GNW post from Murray County. Sun sets on the Cherokee, Chatsworth, Crandell, and Murray County Georgia.