Murray County, Georgia: History
In December 1832 the Georgia General Assembly designated the extreme northwestern corner of the state as Murray County. Formerly part of Cherokee County, the area was named for a distinguished Georgia statesman from Lincoln County, Thomas W. Murray, a former speaker of the Georgia House. Within a short time the legislature found the county was too large to administer properly as the population grew, for the county then included what is now Dade, Walker, Catoosa, Whitfield, Murray, Gordon and parts of Bartow and Chatooga Counties, so further division became necessary. Within two decades, Murray County came to be 342 square miles (886 km2) of land with Spring Place as its county seat until the railroad was built through Chatsworth. With Chatsworth more accessible, the county seat was moved there.
The area was in the heart of the Cherokee Nation at the time the boundary lines were drawn through the territory. Not until after the Cherokees were removed in 1838–39 did white settlers enter the county in large numbers. Spring Place had been established in 1801 as a Moravian mission to the Cherokee and had been a post office since 1810 – the second oldest in North Georgia. After the Cherokee removal, the Moravians relocated with the tribe in what is now Oklahoma to establish New Springplace near the town of Oaks, Oklahoma. Sometime during the late 19th century, James B. Brackett donated the land upon which the Brackett Indian School was built. The school did not always function as a segregated Indian school. At one point in its previously integrated history, it was referred to as the Lone Cherry School.
The Brackets were a notable Eastern Cherokee family who lived along Brackett's Ridges, amongst several other American Indian families, several of which were also Eastern Cherokee. Most of the Brackets were forced to leave Georgia during the Trail of Tears earlier in the 19th century; however, some of them returned to Georgia several years later. James Brackett's brother Adam Brackett, along with several other siblings show up on the Dawes Rolls as being enrolled members of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma.
At the outbreak of the American Civil War, Murray County had no industry and very little wealth. When Georgia seceded from the Union, hundreds of men and boys.from Murray enlisted in the Confederate Army. The following units were from Murray County: …