Excerpts from History of Coweta County from 1825-1880
by W U Anderson

1825 - Coweta County was formed out of a portion of the land purchased form the Creek Indians at a treaty held at the Indian Springs, in the county of Butts, in Georgia, on the 12th day of February, 1825, by David Meriwether and Duncan G Campbell, as commissioners on the part of the United States, General William McIntosh, Col. Hawkins and others, chiefs of the Indians, to sell the lands to the United States for Georgia. General McIntosh, Col. Hawkins and others were killed by the Indians for selling the lands belonging to the Indians to the whites; others would have been killed if they had not made their escape through a back window and swimming the Chattahoochee River in their night clothes to make good their escape. The killing of General McIntosh was in Carroll county, at the reserve, at McIntosh's own house.

Coweta County received its name from a tribe of the Cherokee Indians, called the Coweta tribe, of which General McIntosh was the principal chief; this name will be perpetuated as the name of that tribe of the Indians, the former owners of the lands of Coweta.

Coweta County had originally nine Districts and extended up to near Sandtown, then in the county of DeKalb, but now in Fulton county, and before we leave this description of the County we cna now only find one man who was in the County in 1825, that is Aquilla Hardy, in the Sixth District, now 85 years of age.

1826 - was engaged in the surveying and partly drawing for the land. We don't nnow of but one man now living who settled in the county in 1826, that is Christopher B Brown, who is now living on the same lot of land he settled on in the fall of 1826, and has lived there ever since, and is now well and healthy in his eightieth year. All others that were here in either of these years are either dead or moved away.

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1827 - We now come to this year in which the town was settled at a place called Bullsborough, two adn one-half miles north-east of Newnan, on the Fayetteville road, at which place the first election was held, which resulted in the election of James Hicks, John Guddice, John Underwood, Nicholas Dwyer and Cabel Fields, as Judges of the Inferior Court; Benjamin Easley, Sheriff; John S Beavers, Clerk Superior Court; J Pollard, Clerk of the Inferior Court; John Fleming, R T Returns, Josephus Echols, Tax Collectors; Charles Cleghorn, County Surveyor.

At the election on the first Monday in October, for members of the Legislature, James Hicks was elected Senator; George Pentecost, Representative.

The first Superior Court was held in Coweta at Bullsborough, Walter T Colquitt, Judge; Samuel A Baily, Solicitor-General.

The first Grand Jury was:

1827 --- We have got our first set of officers and first court, but they don't serve long. On the first Monday in January there was the regular election day for county officers every two years, and every year for Tax Receiver and Collector, so that on the first Monday in January, 1828, was the regular election for Sheriff and Clerk, and Bradly Bell was elected Sheriff adn Wm. A. Hicks Clerk Superior Court, Sehon House Clerk Inferior Court, John Flemming Receiver Tax Returns, Silas Reynolds Tax Collector, Charles Cleghorn County Surveyor, Wiley Jones Coroner. County Treasurer then was appointed by the Court, and we then had no Ordinary. The Inferior Court set as a Court of Ordinary for transacting ordinary business.

This will bring us to the location of the town of Newnan, which was done in February, 1828, and the lots sold on the 25th day of March, same year, ranging in prices from $611.50, the highest, down to $40.00, according to size and location. We are getting rather ahead of our business, we should first have given the name our town or city, and why it was named Newnan. It was named Newnan in honor of Gen. Daniel Newnan, who served in the revolutionary war, and was a distinguished officer in the war of 1812, and fought well with Jackson against the Indians. He was a native of North Carolina, but at the time of the location of our town and naming of it he was a citizen of Georgia, and in 1831 he was elected on the general ticket to Congress, and afterwards was made Adjutant General of Georgia, and died in Walker county at about 82 years of age. Every one should respect his name and honor him for his services, and the merits due such a soldier and statesman.

We now have our town laid off, lots sold and the name given it, and why it was given its name. We will now give the name of most or all of the first settlers up to the first three or four years of our county as far as can be recollected or can be procured from others. We will hold open a space for all information we can get from others, and to do justice, we will take it by districts, beginning with the first district up to the ninth. It will be rather dull reading, but it will remind all of many old friends that have been among us in times past, and we should cherish their memory for all time:

Tim Stowell / Chattanooga, TN