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Draketown is an unincorporated community in Haralson County, Georgia, United States. It was first settled by the Mound Builders . Around the 15th or 16th century, the indigenous Cherokee and Muscogee peoples replaced the Mound Builders and began their own society. Cherokee people mostly settled in the Draketown area. [1] [2]
Draketown's elevation is 1,243 feet (379 m). It is located close to the Carroll and Paulding County lines. Haralson County is in the Eastern time zone (GMT -5). [3]
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Draketown was founded by the Cherokee people, who called it "Long Leaf". The area was at that time referred to as the "Long Leaf Post Office." The name Long Leaf came from a long-leaf pine that grew in the area. [4] It was next settled by men from the Ducktown Copper Mine who had found copper nearby. [1] The men from Ducktown, Tennessee named the area Draketown because a drake is a male duck. In 1896, the population was reported to be 100. [5] In 1907, the population was recorded as 300. [6]
The Tallapoosa (Waldrop) copper mine [7] [8] [9] was settled by pioneers before Haralson County was established, from as early as 1857. It was located approximately 100 yards north of Coppermine Road, 600 yards east of the Tallapoosa River. The land of the mine, and three additional land plots, was bought by Thomas Greer Waldrop for $600. [4]
"Copper excitement" started when Elijah Brooks was plowing on the western area of Long Leaf. As he was plowing, he discovered some bright yellow granular material that burned when set on fire, suggestive of copper. Brooks took it for further inspection in Villa Rica; a sample was sent to Tennessee. Immediately prospectors and promoters from Tennessee came to Haralson County. Work began on the copper mine and by 1874, a 48-foot vertical shaft was sunk by the Tennessee group. [4]
Shortly after the shaft was in place, the rights to the mine were acquired by the Middle Georgia Mineral Association of Macon. Many surrounding land owners leased their mineral rights to the Mineral Association, who explored the land for about 18 months. Between 1880 and 1885, the property's mineral rights were held by William Tudor of Boston and Frederick L. Hart of Quebec, Canada. [10] The two formed the Tallapoosa Mining Company. [4]
The Tallapoosa Mining Company built a 235-foot incline to the bottom of the 48-foot shaft previously installed. The vein was approximately 150 feet and furnaces were built to extract the copper from the ground. 15,000 tons of ore were mined from the ground, but only 7,000 tons of ore was ever shipped. Most went to the Georgia Chemical Company of Atlanta, who paid $4 a ton. The ore was hauled from Draketown to Rockmart, 16 miles away, then shipped by the railroad to Atlanta. Copper operations stopped around 1885 but the land was prospected and explored continued around 1900 to 1905. In 1916, the Georgia Pyrite Company bought the Waldrop mine and some adjoining lots. The total area was around 397 acres. [4]
From 1916 to 1917, the Arizona and Georgia Development Company leased the property. It was interested in the large amount of material that was milled and stored from 1881 to 1885. The material contained about 50 percent copper and around 50,000 pounds was collected and sold. Due to difficulties shipping the ore, the Tallapoosa (Waldrop) mine eventually came to a close. [4]
One of the first stories of the Draketown area involves a resident named Walter S. Butler. Butler had traded with the Cherokee people for years, and he eventually fell in love with and married a Cherokee woman. During the 1830s, the Cherokees were rounded up and forced to leave the area. They blindfolded Butler and took him on a long walk through the woods, crossing water several times. When the blindfold was removed, Butler was led through some underbrush to a cave. Inside the cave was a gold mine, with walls of shining yellow metal. Butler filled his pockets with gold nuggets from the floor of the mine. Unfortunately for Butler and his descendants, he was blindfolded again before leaving the mine. Many treasure hunters have looked for this cave, but none have been able to locate it. [11]
There were a few strong and useful men among the early settlers who became identified with Haralson County. These men, realizing the advantages of having a county seat near their homes, influenced the General Assembly to pass an act creating the new county. A majority of the inhabitants of the county are probably descendants of these men: John Jackson Kirk, Captain W.J. Head; B.R. Walton; Martin Ayers; William Garner; Allen Philpot; C.C. Eaves; William Summerville; William J. Brown; Dr. William Gaulding; Dr. D.B. Head; John K. Holcombe Jr.; Seaborn Goldin; Dr. W.F. Goldin; A.J. Hunt; William L. Kelley; Joe W. Kelley; Dr. R.B. Hutcheson; William Johnson; William Morgan; Benjamin F. Morgan Jr.; Andrew J. Stewart; John Rowell; and John McClung." [12] [13]
The first physician of Draketown was Robert Berry Hutcheson.
Hutcheson was elected a delegate to represent the thirty-eighth Senatorial District in the constitutional convention of 1867-68 and he was elected to represent Haralson County during 1873-74 in the Georgia General Assembly. He was again elected in 1886 to the Georgia Assembly.
Eventually, other medical doctors joined him as residents. They included Ivie Golden, Benjamin Franklin Eaves, William Franklin Goldin, and William Love Hogue.
Benjamin Franklin Eaves was the son of Cleburn Camp Eaves and Mary Amanda Kirk, both first pioneers of Haralson County. He attended Emory University and focused his entire practice in the Draketown Community serving Paulding, Carroll, Polk, and Haralson County residents. [1] [14] [15] During the beginning of his career, Eaves was known as the "horse and buggy" doctor. In 1914, he purchased his first car.
William Franklin Golden, son of Seaborn Golden and Sara Whitton, was a medical doctor and surgeon who practiced in Haralson, Polk, Paulding, and Carroll counties for forty years. He studied at Tallapoosa High School, and graduated Atlanta Medical College in 1877. In 1888, he took graduate classes in surgery at the London School of Medicine [15]
Golden served several terms in both the Georgia House of Representatives and the State Senate. His wife was Sarah Susanne Hutcheston, daughter of Dr. Robert Berry Hutcheson. [16]
Golden was a contractor in the building of the Haralson County Courthouse, now the Buchanan Library in Buchanan, Georgia. He was also president of the Temple Banking Company. [17]
William Love Hogue, son of William Thomas Hogue and Mattie Bagby Hogue, was born September 7, 1880, in Paulding County near Concord Baptist Church. He attended Villa Rica school, then later Atlanta Medical College (now Emory University), graduating in 1907. After graduating, he became partners with Dr. William Franklin Goldin. [18]
On April 2, 1908, he became a member of Draketown Baptist Church. In December of the same year, he married Pearl McBrayer, of Draketown.
In 1920, Hogue left Draketown and started a practice in Villa Rica.
Drawn by the school and the doctors in Draketown, many people moved to the area. [1] [15] There was a cotton gin and a gristmill run by Calvin Cissero "Cal" Bishop, a blacksmith shop run by William Morris (later by William Taylor "Dub" Eaves), and a hotel built by Will Abercombie. [1] Draketown also had a couple of stores, including Reeves General Mercantile (owned by John Reeves) and Strickland and Rose. [19] Oss Carroll ran a dry-goods store on a corner across the street from Dr. W.F. Goldin's house (torn down November 17, 2015).
In 1905, the first steam-powered vehicle arrived in Draketown, accompanied by a mule. The first internal-combustion automobile arrived in 1910. It was a Model T Ford owned by Dr. W.F. Golden. A year later, four Maxwell cars, one owned by Dr. B.F. Eaves, arrived. Most of the citizens could not afford automobiles, and traveled by horse and buggy or wagon instead. It took an entire day to travel one-way to or from the county seat, Buchanan. [1] [14]
The hotel, built by Will Abercrombie, served as housing for the teachers of the Draketown Baptist Institute. Oss Carroll later moved his store into the hotel. Across the main Draketown road was a parsonage house, a sizable two-story building. The road from Temple went through what is now Edwards Road (a small, one-lane dirt road) and continued through what is now Eaves Drive. The stretch of road that connects Highway 113 to Highway 120 was not cut until much later. [1] [14]
On November 13, 1924, Alice Stewart, the wife of the raiding parson, was shot twice by rum runners, once in the arm and once in the back. Dr. Eaves took her to Emory University in Atlanta and stayed with her until her death two days later. Stewart identified most of her attackers before death; in total ten men were arrested, but only five went to trial. None were ever convicted. [20] On May 31, 1925, around 5,000 citizens of Haralson County came to the site where Mrs. Stewart was shot to see the unveiling of a 15-foot tall, white marble monument erected by the Ku Klux Klan. [11] [14] [21] [22]
Moore was a Missionary Baptist Preacher, songwriter, singer, and singing teacher. His most famous song, Where We'll Never Grow Old, was written after visiting his parents in Draketown Missionary Baptist Church.
Homer Franklin Morris was a well-known publisher and composer. The Morris-Henson Publishing Company [23] [24] [25] was a leading gospel music publishing company in the 1920s. Some of his many famous songs still sung today were entitled: Row Us Over The Tide, Won't It Be Wonderful There, . [26] [27] [28]
In 1905, the Baptist Preparatory College was located in Draketown, serving Haralson County and the surrounding counties of Carroll, Douglas, Paulding, and Polk. [29]
W.F. Golden donated land for the Draketown Baptist Institute to be built. [30] Around 1918, the institute closed and a community school was opened inside the two-story building.
In 1933, Frazier's chapel and Coalson schools merged with the Draketown Junior High School. J. J. Kirk contracted with Haralson County to transport these pupils by bus.
Around 1955, Haralson County board of education, led by M. M. Sanders, determined that new buildings needed to be contracted and consolidated. By August 1956, Draketown Elementary School was built with seven instructional classrooms at a cost of approximately $98,475.
In 1971, Haralson County High School opened. Draketown school closed and sent students to the new school in Tallapoosa.
Draketown Baptist Church is a wooden building established October 11, 1879. It is unclear when it was bricked, or if the old church was torn down to build a new one. Draketown Baptist Church is located at 100 Eaves Drive.
Lighthouse Missionary Baptist Church is located at 12936 Hwy 120. Gospel Time Baptist Church was built around 1970 and is located at 1817 Frances White Rd.
Polk County is a county located in the southeastern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 United States census, its population was 17,544. Its county seat is Benton. The county was created on November 28, 1839, from parts of Bradley and McMinn counties, after final removal of most Cherokee from the region that year. The county was named after then-governor James K. Polk. Polk County is included in the Cleveland, Tennessee Metropolitan Area Statistical Area, which is also included in the Chattanooga–Cleveland–Dalton, TN–GA–AL Combined Statistical Area.
Paulding County is a county located in the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Georgia. Part of the Atlanta metropolitan area, it had an estimated population of 168,661 in 2020. The county seat is Dallas.
Haralson County is a county located in the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 29,919, up from 28,780 in 2010. The county seat is Buchanan. The county was created on January 26, 1856, and was named for Hugh A. Haralson, a former Georgia congressman.
Gordon County is a county located in the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 57,544. The county seat is Calhoun. Gordon County comprises the Calhoun, GA Micropolitan Statistical Area, which is included in the Chattanooga-Cleveland-Dalton Combined Statistical Area.
Cherokee County is located in the US state of Georgia. As of the 2020 Census, the population was 266,620. The county seat is Canton. The county Board of Commissioners is the governing body, with members elected to office. Cherokee County is included in the Atlanta Metropolitan Area.
Carroll County is a county located in the northwestern part of the State of Georgia. As of the 2020 census, its population was 119,148. Its county seat is the city of Carrollton. Carroll County is included in the Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA Metropolitan Statistical Area and is also adjacent to Alabama on its western border.
Bremen is a city in Haralson and Carroll counties, Georgia, United States. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 7,185 up from 6,227 in the 2010 census. Most of the city is in Haralson County, with a small portion in Carroll County.
Villa Rica is a city in Carroll and Douglas counties in the U.S. state of Georgia. Located roughly 30 miles west of Atlanta, a decision to develop housing on a large tract of land led to a major population boom at the turn of the 21st century: the population was 4,134 at the 2000 census; it had grown by 238%, to 13,956, at the 2010 census; and is estimated at 16,058 in 2019, nearly quadrupling its population in just 19 years.
Dallas is a city in, and the county seat of, Paulding County, Georgia, United States. The estimated population, as of 2020, was 14,042. Dallas is a northwestern exurb of Atlanta, located approximately 38 miles (61 km) from the downtown area. It was named for George M. Dallas, Vice President of the United States, under James K. Polk.
The Toccoa River and Ocoee River are the names in use for a single 93-mile-long (150 km) river that flows northwestward through the southern Appalachian Mountains of the southeastern United States. It is a tributary of the Hiwassee River, which it joins in Polk County, Tennessee, near the town of Benton. Three power generating dams are operated along it.
The Coosa River is a tributary of the Alabama River in the U.S. states of Alabama and Georgia. The river is about 280 miles (450 km) long.
Area code 770 is a telephone area code in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) serving all or part of 29 counties in North Georgia, including most of Atlanta's suburbs. It was created in 1995 in a split of numbering plan area (NPA) 404.
Area codes 678, 470, and 943 are telephone area codes in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) for the U.S. State of Georgia in the Atlanta metropolitan area. The area codes are assigned in an overlay plan to a combined numbering plan area (NPA) consisting of 404 and 770.
The Battle Branch Mine, sometimes referred to as the Battle Creek Mine, was located near the town of Auraria in Lumpkin County, Georgia. Gold was first discovered there in 1831. During the Georgia Gold Rush, before the Gold Lottery of 1832, men from several different states were all working in the same stream when a dispute over the possession of the place ended in a fight in which a number of men were seriously wounded, providing the name for the mine ultimately located there. After the American Civil War, William John Turner Hutcheson, who served with the Blue Ridge Rifles, a Confederate fighting unit from Dahlonega, Georgia, became superintendent of the Battle Branch gold mine. The mine continued producing gold well into the 1900s, producing 661.28 ounces (20.568 kg) of gold in 1935.
The Harbin Clinic is a privately owned multi-specialty medical clinic in Rome, Georgia.
The Burra Burra Mine is a copper mine located in Ducktown, Tennessee, in the southeastern United States. Named for the famous mine in Australia, the Burra Burra Mine is located in the Copper Basin geological region, and extracted over 15 million tons of copper ore during its 60 years of operation between 1899 and 1959. The mine's remaining structures are listed on the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Burra Burra Mine Historic District. The site is also home to the Ducktown Basin Museum, and the museum and mine are a Tennessee State Historic Site operated in partnership with the Tennessee Historical Commission.
The Valley River is a tributary of the Hiwassee River. It arises as a pair of springs in the Snowbird Mountains of Cherokee County, North Carolina and descends 2,960 feet (900 m) in elevation in approximately forty miles (64 km) to enter the Hiwassee embayment at present-day Murphy, North Carolina.
Lithia Springs Hotel was a grand hotel in Tallapoosa, Georgia built by Ralph L. Spencer between 1881 and 1882. It was the largest hotel in the Southeast in the late 19th century to early 20th century. It had 175 rooms, a banquet hall, an elevator, a billiard hall, poolrooms, and a large ballroom. People from all over the country traveled to the Lithia Springs Hotel for health reasons, business, or leisure travel. Many from New York traveled by train for 32 hours. The cost of a roundtrip ticket to Tallapoosa was $38.65. Unfortunately, the economy caused the grand hotel to shut its doors. Several years later the hotel, which was now in ruins, became a fire hazard and had to be dismantled.
Benjamin Franklin Eaves (1870-1953) was a pioneer horse and buggy medical doctor in Haralson County, Georgia. He was well known by all of the residents of Haralson County. He practiced medicine in Haralson Counties from the year 1898-1950. Eaves was also a farmer, and an owner of large amount of acreage in the Draketown area of Haralson County. Many families sharecropped on Eaves's land.
The Copper Basin, also known as the Ducktown Basin, is a geological region located primarily in Polk County, Tennessee that contains deposits of copper ore and covers approximately 60,000 acres. Located in the southeastern corner of Tennessee, small portions of the basin extend into Fannin County, Georgia and Cherokee County, North Carolina. The basin is surrounded by the Cherokee National Forest and the cities of Ducktown and Copperhill, Tennessee and McCaysville, Georgia are located in the basin.
Municipalities and communities of Haralson County, Georgia, United States | ||
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| Cities |  | |
| Unincorporated communities | ||
| Ghost town | ||
| Footnotes | ‡This populated place also has portions in an adjacent county or counties | |