# Cedartown, Polk County, Georgia in the 1880s

> A small county-seat town where cotton wagons, iron furnaces, churches, newspapers, and segregated new schools shared the same streets.

- Place: Cedartown, Polk County, Georgia (34.011, -85.256)
- Years: 1880 to 1889
- Page: https://yorehistory.com/place/cedartown-polk-county-georgia/1880s
- Step into it (interactive): https://yorehistory.com/?step=Cedartown%2C%20Polk%20County%2C%20Georgia%2C%20United%20States&at=34.0112,-85.2559&year=1885

## Looking around

You stand in a county seat whose limits run one mile in every direction from the courthouse[1]. Around the business streets are one- and two-story brick commercial buildings[12], part of a town that counted 843 people in 1880[1]. Toward the works, the Cherokee Iron Company building[2] stands near a blast furnace[2], charcoal ovens[2], and narrow train tracks[2] crossing the road to a foundry. Cedar Creek turns grist and flour mills[1], and cotton comes through town because 5,000 bales were handled here in 1879[1]. The churches are present in public life: Baptist, Methodist, and Presbyterian churches[1][10] are named just before the decade opens, and St. James’ Episcopal Church was built in 1884[11]. Children’s lessons may be in private rooms early in the decade, then in the courthouse and an adjacent store building[4] after the public schools begin.

## 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 tracks[2]. Agriculture still mattered: about 5,000 bales of cotton[1] 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 Church[11] 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 courthouse[1]. A new courthouse project began at the decade’s end, a two-story brick building with a clock tower[13].

## Home & table: Schooling becomes public

Before 1887, Cedartown schooling was private, but the legislature then authorized public schools in Polk County[4]. Early public classes used the courthouse and an adjacent store building[4], and families paid fifty cents for a month[4] in pupil tickets.

## Money: Small fees, big employers

A school month cost fifty cents[4] per pupil. Larger cash employment came from county manufacturing, where two iron companies employed 344[1] of the 496 manufacturing hands reported in 1879.

## Who lived here: Small town, segregated schools

Cedartown counted only 843 people in 1880[1], 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 County[3].

## 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 tracks[2]. No local online death register or accident list for ordinary Cedartown workers in the 1880s was found here.

## Year by year

- **1879** (here): Sholes’ 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.[1][10]
- **1880** (here): The federal census counted 843 people in Cedartown and 11,952 in Polk County.[1]
- **1881** (the country): James A. Garfield was assassinated, and the news would have reached Cedartown through newspapers and political talk.
- **1884** (here): St. James’ Episcopal Church was built in Cedartown.[11]
- **1886** (nearby): The Charleston earthquake shook a wide region of the Southeast and was widely reported across Georgia.
- **1887** (here): Public schools were authorized for Polk County, and Cedartown’s first public-school arrangements began.[4]
- **1888** (here): Cedartown Colored Public School opened for Black children on January 25.[4][5]
- **1889** (here): The Cedartown Standard began publishing, and construction started on a new brick courthouse with a clock tower.[6][7]

## 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 sources)[1]
- Polk County had 11,952 people in 1880, so Cedartown was a small town within a mostly rural county. (from the sources)[9]
- 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 sources)[1]
- Polk County was created on December 20, 1851, and named for President James K. Polk. (from the sources)[8]
- The county’s first railroad, the Selma, Rome & Dalton, crossed only the extreme northwestern corner of Polk County after being chartered in 1866. (inferred)[3]
- 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 sources)[2]
- In 1879 Polk County had 39 manufacturing establishments employing 496 hands; two iron companies employed 344 of those workers. (from the sources)[1]
- Cedartown handled about 5,000 bales of cotton in 1879, from the 1878 crop, and exported iron, grain, hides, and other goods. (from the sources)[1]
- The Cherokee Iron Company also operated a large store and grist and flour mills on Cedar Creek. (from the sources)[1]
- 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. (inferred)[4]
- Until the College Street School was completed in 1887, Cedartown public-school classes met in the courthouse and an adjacent store building. (inferred)[4]
- In 1887 Cedartown’s public schools had five teachers and about 175 pupils, and pupils had to buy monthly tickets costing fifty cents. (inferred)[4]
- 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. (inferred)[5]
- 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 sources)[11]
- 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 sources)[12]
- Construction of a new two-story brick Polk County courthouse with a clock tower began in Cedartown in 1889. (from the sources)[13]
- 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. https://dca.georgia.gov/document/plans/polk-county-cities-community-assessment-2007/download
2. Photograph of Cherokee Iron Company, Cedartown, Polk County, Georgia, ca. 1880. Digital Library of Georgia / Georgia Archives, 1880. https://dlg.usg.edu/record/dlg_vang_plk082-84
3. About Us. Polk County Historical Society. https://polkhist.com/about-us/
4. Cedartown Public Schools. Polk County Historical Society, 1950. https://polkhist.com/cedartown-public-schools/
5. Remembering Cedar Hill. Polk County Historical Society, 2022. https://polkhist.com/remembering-cedar-hill/
6. History of Cedartown and Polk County’s Newspapers. Polk County Historical Society, 2019. https://polkhist.com/history-of-cedartown-and-polk-countys-newspapers/
7. Early Polk County Newspapers. Polk County Historical Society, 2021. https://polkhist.com/early-polk-county-newspapers/
8. Polk County Historical Marker. Georgia Historical Society, 1953. https://www.georgiahistory.com/ghmi_marker_updated/polk-county/
9. Polk County, Georgia. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polk_County,_Georgia
10. Sholes’ Georgia State Gazetteer and Business Directory for 1879 & 1880. Digital Library of Georgia, 1879. https://dlg.usg.edu/record/dlg_zlgb_gb5099
11. St. James’ Episcopal Church (Cedartown, Georgia). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._James%27_Episcopal_Church_(Cedartown,_Georgia)
12. Cedartown Commercial Historic District. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cedartown_Commercial_Historic_District
13. Polk County Courthouse. Digital Library of Georgia. https://dlg.usg.edu/record/dlg_gacoch_polk-county-courthouse

## The same place in other decades

- [Cedartown in the 1900s](https://yorehistory.com/place/cedartown-polk-georgia/1900s/md)

## Nearby, about the same time

- [McDonough, Henry, Georgia in the 1880s](https://yorehistory.com/place/mcdonough-henry-georgia/1880s/md) (120 km)

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Researched by Yore's AI historian (gpt-5.5) on 2026-10-25 from the sources listed. It is about the place and the time, not about any person. Statements marked "inferred" are conclusions, not records. Cite as: Yore, "Cedartown, Polk County, Georgia in the 1880s", https://yorehistory.com/place/cedartown-polk-county-georgia/1880s