Image above: 1831 map of Cherokee territory in Georgia from the Library of Congress
Land that became Cobb County was originally part of the Cherokee Nation that the State of Georgia divided for its 1832 land lotteries.
During those lotteries the state distributed lots through a drawing system with detailed rules about who could participate.
The sixth land lottery distributed 160-acre land lots, with an $18 grant fee for each lot. A separate drawing, the seventh lottery, distributed “gold” lots of 40 acres.
The drawings were part of Georgia’s distribution of Cherokee land to white Georgians. They also coincided with the state’s creation of Cobb and nine other counties from territory it had designated Cherokee County.
A few years after the lottery, citizens of the Cherokee Nation were forcibly removed from their land in the notorious “Trail of Tears” (see the description of the Trail of Tears at the end of this article).
From Cherokee territory to Cobb County
According to the Georgia Archives’ account of the 1832 land lottery, the drawing was authorized by an act passed Dec. 21, 1830.
Georgia designated the Cherokee territory as Cherokee County under an act passed Dec. 26, 1831.
On Dec. 3, 1832, another law divided that county into 10 counties: Cass, later renamed Bartow; Cherokee; Cobb; Floyd; Forsyth; Gilmer; Lumpkin; Murray; Paulding; and Union.
For the drawings and land grants, however, the area was treated as Cherokee territory rather than by those county names.
How the land was divided
The territory was divided into four sections containing a total of 60 land districts. Those districts were then divided into individual lots. Fractional lots containing at least 100 acres were counted as whole lots.
The sixth lottery’s land districts were distributed among the four sections as follows:
- First Section: Districts 6-10 and 16-19.
- Second Section: Districts 4-14, 20 and 22-27.
- Third Section: Districts 5-16.
- Fourth Section: Districts 4-15 and 18-19.
Who could enter the drawing?
Eligibility depended on age, residency, citizenship, family circumstances and military service. Many categories required three years of residence in Georgia.
An unmarried man 18 or older who met the residency and U.S. citizenship requirements was entitled to one draw. A qualifying married man with a wife, a son younger than 18 or an unmarried daughter was entitled to two. A widow meeting the residency requirement generally received one draw.
Other provisions covered families whose husband or father had been absent from the state for three years, orphans, children of people convicted of crimes, and children born outside marriage. Families of one or two qualifying orphans received one draw; families of three or more received two.
Military service could also affect eligibility. Revolutionary War veterans generally qualified for two draws, although veterans who had won in an earlier lottery were allotted one. Certain war widows, orphans of men killed in specified wars, and veterans wounded or disabled in the War of 1812 or wars against Native Americans qualified for two draws.
The rules also provided draws for certain people with disabilities, using terminology now considered offensive. Age requirements differed for males and females in those categories.
Who was excluded?
The exclusions included anyone who had won a previous land lottery and obtained a grant for that lot, subject to the separately listed provision for Revolutionary War veterans, who were allowed two draws.
People who had mined gold, silver or other metals in Cherokee territory — or had caused others to do so — since June 1, 1830, were excluded. So were people who had taken up residence in the territory prior to the lottery, and anyone convicted of a felony in a Georgia court.
One exclusion named a particular group: anyone who belonged to or was involved with “a horde of Thieves known as the Pony Club.” According to several sources, the Pony Club was an organized crime group operating out of Carroll County, that was engaged in theft, and in the harassment of Cherokee residents.
After the Lottery: Forced Removal and the “Trail of Tears”
The Trail of Tears was the forced removal of Native peoples from their southeastern homelands to Indian Territory, in what is now Oklahoma. The name is most closely associated with the Cherokee removal of 1838-39, although the broader removal policy also displaced the Choctaw, Muscogee (Creek), Chickasaw and Seminole nations. President Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act in 1830, authorizing land exchanges that became the basis for federal removal efforts. The Library of Congress provides documents explaining the law and its consequences.
The Cherokee resisted through petitions, political organizing and court challenges. Nevertheless, a minority faction signed the Treaty of New Echota in 1835, agreeing to surrender Cherokee lands east of the Mississippi. The signers lacked authority under Cherokee law, and most Cherokee opposed the agreement, but the U.S. Senate ratified it in 1836. As the Cherokee Nation’s history explains, the federal government used that treaty to justify expelling people who refused to leave their ancestral homes.
Beginning in May 1838, U.S. troops and state militia forced Cherokee families from their homes in Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama and North Carolina into detention camps. They were then sent west along several land and water routes, with the removal continuing into March 1839. Exposure, starvation and disease killed thousands; the Cherokee Nation estimates that about 4,000 people died in the camps or along the journey. The National Park Service describes the roundup and routes, while the Cherokee Nation’s remembrance account documents the human toll.
Survivors rebuilt communities and institutions in Indian Territory despite the loss of relatives, homes and their homeland. In 1839, the Cherokee Nation adopted a new constitution, and its capital at Tahlequah developed schools, businesses and government institutions. Removal also deepened political divisions that persisted for years. The Cherokee Nation’s historical account describes both those conflicts and the nation’s continuing efforts to preserve its government, language and culture.
Editor’s note: AI was used in the production of this article. To read about how, when and why we make use of AI, read our article “How, When and Why the Cobb County Courier uses AI.”