County of plaque: Bartow County
Location of plaque: Friendship Plaza fence, behind train depot, Cartersville
Plaque erected: 2001
Plaque erected by: Cartersville-Bartow Convention & Visitors Bureau
The Person:
FARISH CARTER
Planter, land speculator, entrepreneur. Born South Carolina, November 24, 1780; died Milledgeville, Georga, July 2, 1861.
Never lived in Cartersville, Georgia, but is named in his honor. He has been cited as the richest landowner and businessman in Antebellum Georgia and played an important role in the growth of Georgia's pre-war economy. While traveling through the little village of Birmingham near the newly built W&A Railroad, Carter jested that the name should be changed to Cartersville.
The name was chosen when the Town of Cartersville, Geeorgia was incorporated on February 1, 1850.
His Find-A-Grave listing have virtually no information so I will add some.
"Born: November 24, 1780, Abbeville District, South Carolina
Died: July 2, 1861, Milledgeville, Georgia
Buried: in Memory Hill Cemetery, Milledgeville, Georgia
Prominent Georgia businessman and farmer in the early 1800’s.
Owned over 45,000 acres throughout Georgia
Cartersville was named for Carter during the 1830’s
"While numerous historians recount Farish Carter’s attempts to have a town named in his honor, Carter’s very serious business acumen suggests a more deliberate pursuit of lasting remembrance in Georgia. Farish Carter made frequent stage coach trips between his plantations in both north and south Georgia, passing frequently through the little hamlet of Birmingham, on the Etowah River, just south of present day Cartersville, Georgia. Nathaniel Deery Lewis, an early settler of Birmingham, was quoted in a 1903 newspaper that Carter had once approached him about renaming Birmingham for Carter, but rejected the notion stating that Birmingham already had a name and suggested he visit the the town growing up a half mile north. The town Lewis referred to was a small community of settlers that at the time was preparing for a station in anticipation of the railroad coming through following passage of a bill in 1836 creating the Western & Atlantic Railroad. The town would become Cartersville and over time the community of Birmingham ceased to exist. Not only did Carter have the town named for him, he partnered in land speculation with Col. Stephen H. Long, the chief engineer in charge of determining the route of the Western & Atlantic Railroad, and profited from several land acquisitions they had jointly purchased there.
"Farish Carter began his business career as a merchant in Sandersville, Georgia. During the War of 1812 he profited quite well selling arms and military supplies to the Georgia Militia as United States Army Contractor for Georgia. With the resulting profits, he bought a plantation at Scottsboro, Georgia south of Milledgeville, and another he called Bonavista on the Oconee River. By 1845, he would own over 30,000 acres in Baldwin County, Georgia alone. His appetite for wealth caused him to further speculate in land acquisitions and investments such as banking, gold mining and railroads. As the future of the Cherokee in North Georgia was being debated around 1832, Carter purchased 15,000 acres on the Coosawattee River from Judge John Martin, treasurer of the Cherokee Nation. He gave it the name Carter’s Quarters and established a plantation there in what would become Murray County. All his plantations were both self supportive and profitable producing a broad array of goods such as tobacco, wool, livestock, grains, timber and cotton. Carter also controlled a Louisiana sugar plantation during the early 1830’s.
"With many partners, companies and investments over his lifetime, Carter had amassed business interests in Georgia, North Carolina, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Indiana and Illinois. Included were mills, quarries, factories, toll bridges and ferries throughout Georgia plus steamboats on the Ocmulgee, Oconee, Altamaha, Tennessee and Mississippi Rivers. Whatever his motivations, fame or fortune, Carter’s economic diversity played an important role in Georgia’s pre war economy. And while that might not have secured him an influential place in history, it led to at least one northwest Georgia community’s remembrance of him as their town’s namesake. Farish Carter died in Milledgeville, Georgia on July 2, 1861, less than a month after the South had declared war." ~ Etowah Valley Historical Society
The Place:
"Founded in 1832 by settlers who won their land in Georgia's sixth land lottery, Birmingham was at the junction of the Hightower Trail, Sandtown Road, one of three "Alabama Roads" and a lesser known north-south route running from Cincinnati to Florida. Yet Cassville, county seat of Cass County and cultural capital of north Georgia, easily overshadowed its neighbor. In 1837 the Western and Atlantic Railroad decided to put a depot in the tiny town, giving the city the impetus for future growth. Although the rail bed was quickly graded it would be another 8 years until the track was laid and trains actually began to travel on the railroad.
"In 1792, after a battle at Rome's Myrtle Hill, the village of Hightower moved east along the major east-west route in the lower Cherokee Nation. Today the remains of this village lay beneath downtown Cartersville. In 1838 the Cherokee were rounded up and herded into Kingston's Fort Means. From here they were sent west on a journey known today as "The Trail of Tears."
"One reason people came to Cartersville was to visit the Tumlin Indian Mounds. Among those making this journey in 1844 was a young lieutenant stationed in Marietta, William Tecumseh Sherman. After riding a horse to Cartersville and visiting the mounds, Sherman stayed with the Tumlins while he surveyed the surrounding area. This reconnaissance would serve him well as leader of the Union forces during the "Atlanta Campaign." The name of the city changed from Birmingham to Cartersville in 1846, in honor of Farish Carter, a wealthy businessman with ties to the town.
"Roads that played an important role in the development of the town now became "feeders" for the farmers to transport crops to the Western and Atlantic railroad depot. In 1848 the city began a pattern of slow, steady growth that would continue through the start of the Civil War. In 1858 the Cartersville Express was first published, but the center of the town remained the depot and the railroad itself.
"Today, Cartersville is a favorite stop of visitors to the state. The familiar gold cupola of the old courthouse welcomes people who enter the Etowah Valley from I-75. The depot is alongside a small city park at the center of town. The downtown area is being revitalized, in part thanks to the growth that has occurred over the past few years because of its proximity to Atlanta. Downtown is home to The History Center, a small museum that tells of Cartersville's past." ~ Roadside Georgia