By Elliott Brack, editor and publisher | Officials in the county seat of Lawrenceville have been selling themselves short. Perhaps it’s because when new people come into office in Lawrenceville, and that the institutional memory went the door. For the Lawrenceville officials have been saying recently that they are the second oldest city in Metro Atlanta.
Tut. Tut. It’s better than that. Maybe city officials have not opened the history book, Gwinnett: A Little Above Atlanta recently, written by yours truly. For on page 110, it says: “Lawrenceville has the distinction of being the oldest city in the five county Metro Atlanta area, dating back to 1821.”
That led us to wonder about the date of chartering of other Metro Atlanta cities. Decatur is the second oldest in Metro Atlanta, dating back to 1823. Then comes Marietta (1834), Atlanta (1845) and Jonesboro (1859). We got the dates cities were chartered from Amy Henderson at the Georgia Municipal Association (GMA).
The years other cities of Greater Atlanta were chartered include Covington, 1822; Fayetteville, 1823; McDonough, 1823; Newnan, 1828; Canton, 1834; Cumming, 1834; Conyers, 1854; and Fairburn, 1854.
In 1818 the state created three counties, Gwinnett, Hall and Walton. The county seat cities of Gainesville and Monroe were also chartered in 1821.
THE GMA INFORMATION got us to wondering about other Georgia cities. So we propose a trivia question, which all of you might know to test others: what is the oldest chartered city in Georgia?
Lawrenceville City Hall
ANSWER: The oldest chartered city in Georgia is Washington, county seat of Wilkes County, got its charter in 1780. What? Yes, Savannah is next, chartered in 1789, and you wonder why the Savannahians, which was first settled in 1733, didn’t charter itself sooner. Third oldest chartered city St. Marys, chartered in 1792.
Now, more details. Skeet Willingham, the go-to person for local history in Washington, says that while Savannah was Georgia’s capitol in 1776, during the Revolution it was not a “patriot haven.” He adds: “When people in Savannah saw the Redcoats coming, they let the British in. So the capitol of Georgia was moved to Augusta in 1778.
“Then when Augusta fell to the Tories, the Georgia government moved in 1780 to the back country, to Heard’s Fort. That was the home of Stephen Heard, who was president of the executive council of Georgia. Heard’s Fort is eight miles from Washington. Once the Tories left Augusta, the government moved back first to Augusta, then even met some in Savannah. But in 1798 Louisville was designated as the capitol, moving westward with the people. Eventually, in 1807 Milledgeville became the capitol, before it was finally moved to Atlanta in 1868.” Whew! Thanks, Skeet for that short history of Georgia capitols!
Meanwhile, Luciana Spracher, the archivist in Savannah, says that after settlement in 1733, Savannah government was British-run, of course. After the Revolution, the area was first run as a county government. But in 1787, the first city government was known as the Board of Wardens. Savannah got its charter as a city in 1789. Thus, Washington has the distinction as the first city chartered by the State of Georgia.
One more tidbit: Augusta was settled two years after Savannah, 1735. It did not get a charter as a city government until 1798. But recently the Richmond County and Augusta city government consolidated, so today its charter is from 1996.
- To see the charter dates of all cities in Georgia, click here.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
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