Name derivation:Named in honor of the Cherokee Indians, from whom the state illegally took the land.
Acquisition: Treaty of New Echota (1835)
Taken from: Original County
Counties created from: Milton County, Pickens County
Cities: Canton (county seat), Ball Ground, Holly Springs, Waleska, and Woodstock

Web sites:
National Register of Historic Places in Cherokee County, Georgia
Archives of Cherokee County, Georgia
Cherokee County, Georgia, links

History

Formed in 1832, and ceded by the Cherokee to the state of Georgia under the corrupt Treaty of New Echota, Cherokee County began as a rural, agriculture-based economy. Before the Civil War Canton was its only major city. It was in Canton that future governor Joe Brown practiced law.

In 1880 the Marietta and North Georgia Railroad came to town, providing jobs and non-agriculture based income for a number of people. Storeowner Robert Tyre Jones would benifit from the railroad's prensence -- his general store in Canton would become the largest in north Georgia.

"Canton denim," a product of the Canton Cotton Mills, made the city famous internationally, at least according to the city web site. Completed in 1924, the mill closed in 1981, thanks to foreign competition.