Cedartown, Polk County, Georgia in the 1880s

Work

Iron, cotton, creek mills

Industrial work centered on the Cherokee Iron Company, where an 1880 view shows charcoal ovens, a steam engine, a blast furnace, and narrow train tracks². Agriculture still mattered: about 5,000 bales of cotton¹ passed through Cedartown in 1879.

Faith

Several Protestant calendars

Just before the decade, Cedar Town was listed with Baptist, Methodist, and Presbyterian churches^1,10. The church map widened in 1884, when St. James’ Episcopal Church¹¹ was built.

Law & power

Courthouse at the center

Cedartown’s town limits literally radiated from authority: one mile in every direction from the center of the courthouse¹. A new courthouse project began at the decade’s end, a two-story brick building with a clock tower¹³.

Home & table

Schooling becomes public

Before 1887, Cedartown schooling was private, but the legislature then authorized public schools in Polk County⁴. Early public classes used the courthouse and an adjacent store building⁴, and families paid fifty cents for a month⁴ in pupil tickets.

Money

Small fees, big employers

A school month cost fifty cents⁴ per pupil. Larger cash employment came from county manufacturing, where two iron companies employed 344¹ of the 496 manufacturing hands reported in 1879.

Who lived here

Small town, segregated schools

Cedartown counted only 843 people in 1880¹, but it was growing fast. Black children entered a separate public system when a public school for Black children opened on January 25, 1888^4,5.

Roads & news

Papers before rail certainty

Local news came through a changing newspaper world that included the Record, Express, Advertiser, and Standard^6,7. Rail access in the wider county was uneven, since the first railroad crossed only the extreme northwestern corner of Polk County³.

What people feared

Furnace and foundry risks

The most visible dangers were industrial: the iron works had a steam engine, a blast furnace, charcoal ovens, and narrow train tracks². No local online death register or accident list for ordinary Cedartown workers in the 1880s was found here.

Year by year

1. 1879Sholes’ Georgia State Gazetteer described Cedar Town as a place with three churches, three schools, major iron works, cotton transactions, and exports of iron, grain, and hides. here^1,10
2. 1880The federal census counted 843 people in Cedartown and 11,952 in Polk County. here¹
3. 1881James A. Garfield was assassinated, and the news would have reached Cedartown through newspapers and political talk. the country
4. 1884St. James’ Episcopal Church was built in Cedartown. here¹¹
5. 1886The Charleston earthquake shook a wide region of the Southeast and was widely reported across Georgia. nearby
6. 1887Public schools were authorized for Polk County, and Cedartown’s first public-school arrangements began. here⁴
7. 1888Cedartown Colored Public School opened for Black children on January 25. here^4,5
8. 1889The Cedartown Standard began publishing, and construction started on a new brick courthouse with a clock tower. here^6,7

Pictures from the time

What the sources say

• Cedartown, the county seat of Polk County, had 843 people in the 1880 census, up 161 percent from 1870. from the sources¹
• Polk County had 11,952 people in 1880, so Cedartown was a small town within a mostly rural county. from the sources⁹
• Cedartown’s corporate limits were enlarged on February 21, 1873, to extend one mile in every direction from the center of the courthouse. from the sources¹
• Polk County was created on December 20, 1851, and named for President James K. Polk. from the sources⁸
• The county’s first railroad, the Selma, Rome & Dalton, crossed only the extreme northwestern corner of Polk County after being chartered in 1866. inferred³
• A photograph dated about 1880 shows the Cherokee Iron Company at Cedartown, with a building erected in 1874, charcoal ovens, a steam engine, a blast furnace, and narrow train tracks running across the road to the foundry. from the sources²
• In 1879 Polk County had 39 manufacturing establishments employing 496 hands; two iron companies employed 344 of those workers. from the sources¹
• Cedartown handled about 5,000 bales of cotton in 1879, from the 1878 crop, and exported iron, grain, hides, and other goods. from the sources¹
• The Cherokee Iron Company also operated a large store and grist and flour mills on Cedar Creek. from the sources¹
• Sholes’ Georgia State Gazetteer for 1879 described Cedar Town as having Baptist, Methodist, and Presbyterian churches, three schools, and the largest iron works in the South. from the sources^1,10
• The Georgia Legislature passed a bill in 1887 providing for public schools in Polk County, and Cedartown’s earlier schooling had been private. inferred⁴
• Until the College Street School was completed in 1887, Cedartown public-school classes met in the courthouse and an adjacent store building. inferred⁴
• In 1887 Cedartown’s public schools had five teachers and about 175 pupils, and pupils had to buy monthly tickets costing fifty cents. inferred⁴
• A public school for Black children opened on January 25, 1888, first meeting in the Negro Methodist Church and then in a three-room schoolhouse on Gordon Street, now North Main Street. inferred^4,5
• Professor Lewis Emery Hall, who had come from Maryland in 1880, became the first principal of Cedartown Colored Public School and served from 1888 to 1924. inferred⁵
• Cedartown’s newspapers in and around the decade included the Cedartown Record, the Cedartown Express, the Cedartown Advertiser, and, from 1889, the Cedartown Standard. inferred^6,7
• St. James’ Episcopal Church in Cedartown was built in 1884. from the sources¹¹
• Cedartown’s later commercial historic district preserves many one- and two-story brick commercial buildings on South Main Street, with construction dates beginning in the 1870s. from the sources¹²
• Construction of a new two-story brick Polk County courthouse with a clock tower began in Cedartown in 1889. from the sources¹³
• No detailed online household account for an ordinary Cedartown family in the 1880s was found in this quick search. not known

Sources

1. Polk County and Cities Community Assessment. Georgia Department of Community Affairs, 2007
2. Photograph of Cherokee Iron Company, Cedartown, Polk County, Georgia, ca. 1880. Digital Library of Georgia / Georgia Archives, 1880
3. About Us. Polk County Historical Society
4. Cedartown Public Schools. Polk County Historical Society, 1950
5. Remembering Cedar Hill. Polk County Historical Society, 2022
6. History of Cedartown and Polk County’s Newspapers. Polk County Historical Society, 2019
7. Early Polk County Newspapers. Polk County Historical Society, 2021
8. Polk County Historical Marker. Georgia Historical Society, 1953
9. Polk County, Georgia. Wikipedia
10. Sholes’ Georgia State Gazetteer and Business Directory for 1879 & 1880. Digital Library of Georgia, 1879
11. St. James’ Episcopal Church (Cedartown, Georgia). Wikipedia
12. Cedartown Commercial Historic District. Wikipedia
13. Polk County Courthouse. Digital Library of Georgia

Cedartown in other decades

Nearby, about the same time