County of marker: Gordon County
Location of marker: 100 S. Wall St., courthouse lawn, Calhoun
Marker erected in: 1953
Marker erected by: Georgia Historical Commission
Marker text:
GORDON COUNTY
This county was named for William Washington Gordon, of Savannah (1796-1842). The first Georgian to graduate at West Point, he entered the practice of law and was a pioneer in the railroad field in this State.
He was the founder and first President of the Central Railroad and Banking Company, now the Central of Georgia System.
Gordon county was created by an act of the Georgia Legislature, Feb. 13, 1850. Area 375 square miles. 1950 population 18,957.
The Person:
Neat link and very long, so I give a link here not to use up all my space: Georgia Encyclopedia
"William Washington Gordon (January 17, 1796 – March 22, 1842) was an American politician and businessman.
"Gordon was born in Screven County, Georgia. He was named after American Revolutionary War General William Washington under whom Gordon's father, Ambrose Gordon, served as a cavalry lieutenant.
"Upon the death of Ambrose Gordon in 1804, William Washington Gordon was sent to school in Rhode Island and then attended the United States Military Academy. He graduated from that institution in 1815 and was the first person from Georgia to do so. He remained in the army for half a year, serving as an aide-de-camp to Edmund P. Gaines. He then returned to Savannah, Georgia to study law under James Moore Wayne.
"Gordon would also marry Wayne's niece, Sarah Anderson "Addy" Stites, in 1826 and purchase Wayne's unfinished Savannah home in 1830. Washington's granddaughter, Juliette Gordon Low – founder of the Girl Scouts of the United States of America, was born and raised in the Wayne-Gordon House. The national Girl Scouts organization bought the house in 1953, renovated it and dedicated it on October 19, 1956 as the Juliette Gordon Low Birthplace, a museum in honor of Low. The house was Savannah's first registered National Historic Landmark.
"Gordon became a member of the state bar in 1820 and served in several local public positions. In 1834, Gordon was elected as the mayor of Savannah and served in that position until 1836. During his mayoral service, he was elected to the Georgia General Assembly as a member of the House of Representatives in 1835. In 1838, he was elected to the Georgia Senate.
"He founded and served as the first president of the Central Railroad and Banking Company of Georgia, which would later be reorganized as the Central of Georgia Railway. Today the Central of Georgia lines are a component of the Norfolk Southern Railway.
"Gordon died in Savannah in 1842 from bilious pleurisy and was originally buried in Colonial Cemetery in that city; however, his grave was later moved to Laurel Grove Cemetery. One year later, in 1843 the railroad he founded desecrated the important Native American site of Ocmulgee National Monument, sacred to the Creek Indians, when it constructed a rail line through the site that partially destroyed the Lesser Temple Mound. In 1873, the Central Railroad built a second rail line through the site, this time nearly destroying the Funeral Mound which contained the graves of the ancestors of the Creek Indians. The workers removed bones and other artifacts from this burial mound further desecrating this sacred site.
"On June 25, 1882, the Central of Georgia Railroad and Banking Company constructed a memorial to Gordon in Savannah's Wright Square. To do so they destroyed the grave of Indian Chief Tomochichi who had given General Oglethorpe the land on which to found the city of Savannah. Gordon's daughter-in-law, Nellie Kinzie Gordon, was outraged at this perceived insult to Tomochichi thus she and other members of the Colonial Dames of the State of Georgia erected a new monument to Tomochichi, made of granite from Stone Mountain, and located in the southwest corner of the square. Gordon, Georgia and Gordon County, Georgia are both named after Gordon." ~ Wikipedia
He is buried in Laurel Grove Cemetery, according to Find-A-Grave
The County:
The Georgia Encyclopedia version of the county
"Gordon County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2010 census, the population was 55,186. The county seat is Calhoun.
"Gordon County comprises the Calhoun, GA Micropolitan Statistical Area, which is included in the Atlanta-Athens-Clarke County-Sandy Springs, GA Combined Statistical Area.
"Gordon County was created on February 13, 1850 by an act of the Georgia General Assembly (Ga. Laws 1849-50, p. 124). The new county was formed from portions of Cass (later renamed Bartow) and Floyd counties. All lands that would become Gordon County were originally occupied by the Cherokee Indians -- and, in fact, the area was home of New Echota, the last seat of the Cherokee Nation. Even while Cherokees remained on their homeland, the General Assembly enacted legislation in December 1830 that provided for surveying the Cherokee Nation in Georgia and dividing it into sections, districts, and land lots. Subsequently, the legislature identified this entire area as "Cherokee County" (even though it never functioned as a county). An act of December 3, 1832 divided the Cherokee lands into ten new counties—Cass (later renamed Bartow), Cherokee, Cobb, Floyd, Forsyth, Gilmer, Lumpkin, Murray, Paulding, and Union. Cherokee lands were distributed to whites in a land lottery, but the legislature temporarily prohibited whites from taking possession of lots on which Cherokees still lived.
"It was not until December 29, 1835 that Georgia had an official basis for claiming the unceded [sic] Cherokee lands that included the future location of Gordon County. In the Treaty of New Echota, a faction of the Cherokees agreed to give up all Cherokee claims to land in Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, and North Carolina and move west in return for $5 million. Though a majority of Cherokees opposed the treaty and refused to leave, the U.S. and Georgia considered it binding. In 1838, U.S. Army troops rounded up the last of 15,000 Cherokees in Georgia and forced them to march west in what came to be known as the "Trail of Tears", making Gordon County the head of this loathsome trail.
"Gordon County's original 1850 boundaries were changed numerous times between 1852 to 1877, during which time the legislature transferred portions of Cass (Bartow), Floyd, Murray, Pickens, and Walker counties to Gordon County, while transferring land from Gordon to Floyd and Murray counties.
"Georgia's 94th county was named for William Washington Gordon[3] (1796–1842), the first Georgian to graduate from West Point and first president of the Central of Georgia Railroad." ~ Wikipedia