Bartow County, Georgia

Bartow County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2010 census, the population was 100,157. The county seat is Cartersville.

Bartow County is included in the Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA Metropolitan Statistical Area. It has a sole commissioner government, and is the largest county with a sole commissioner.

History

Bartow County was created from the Cherokee lands of the Cherokee County territory on December 3, 1832, and named Cass County, after General Lewis Cass (1782–1866) Secretary of War under President Andrew Jackson, Minister to France and Secretary of State under President James Buchanan, who was instrumental in the removal of Native Americans from the area, until the county was renamed on December 6, 1861 in honor of Francis S. Bartow due to Cass' alleged opposition to slavery, even though Bartow never stepped foot in the county that bears his name, having lived some 200 miles away near Savannah virtually all his life. Cass supported the doctrine of popular sovereignty, which essentially is states' rights, the right of each state to determine its own laws independently of the Federal government; ironcially the platform of conservative Southerners then who removed his name and to this very day. The first county seat was at Cassville, but after the burning of the county courthouse and the Sherman Occupation the seat moved to Cartersville, where it remains.