Dade County World War I Inductees. First Row: Len Mason, Asa Reeves, Grady Hawkins, Charlie Gass, Bert Holtzhower, Gene Bates. Second Row: Dent Dean, Ed Tucker, Byron Forester, Lawrence Gass, Boss Cole. Third Row:  Mike Castleberry, Frank Carroll, Charlie Redding, Dolph Fischer, Raymond Castleberry, John Murphy and Troy Holmes.

A little over 100 years ago, Dade County sent many of its own to serve their country in World War I....

Bob Dombrowski and Mary Petruska of the Trenton Arts Council in an "American Gothic" pose in 2010 in front of the Wildwood barn Bob used as a sculpture studio. He had to share it with the tractor.

Bob Dombrowski died in December, a death that went unmarked for some weeks. He had been living alone in Wildwood since his partner in life, Mary Petruska, died in 2016. He had surviving brothers but they lived out of state and had nev...

This time, instead of a history article, we’re having an historical picture. This picture shows a group of students at Rising Fawn Junior High. At this time, Rising Fawn went through the ninth grade, and we’re guessing that this might be the ninth-grade group. I know that my uncle, who is in the picture, was born in 1925, so I would estimate the picture was taken around 1939 or so.

We couldn’t identify every person, but we’re h...

The Georgia Historic Preservation Division is now accepting applications for the Georgia Centennial Farm Award. To qualify, your farm should have been operating for 100 years with a minimum of 10 acres, produce at least $1,000 in annual farm-generated income, and retain at least 10 acres from the original purchase.

There are three categories of awards:

• Centennial Heritage Farm Award, for farms that have been family owned fo...

The Dade County Historical Society announces its third annual Cemetery Walk, which will take place on Saturday afternoon, April 25, hour to be announced later. This year we'll feature Sarah’s Chapel Cemetery in Morganville. This cemetery was begun in the early 1840s by Joab McCollum.

Some of the families represented are: Morgan, Lea, Bennett, Dugan, Hughes, Killian, McCollum, Hale, Waddell and McCauley. Also found there are mem...

Joy Odom did a wonderful and comprehensive job of explaining how Dade County came to be and what the 1850 census could tell us about our county’s beginnings. Census stories are very relevant as shortly we will be given the opportunity to be counted again.

Having been given the opportunity to see the sample of the latest census, several things were interesting to me. 1) It will take a citizen about 10 minutes to complete the fo...

The Dade County Historical Society has announced plans to facilitate Phase Two of our county-wide historical structures survey. The project is being conducted by the Trenton-Dade Historic Preservation Commission with the support of a generous grant from the state of Georgia’s Historic Preservation Division.

(Photo: Coke oven ruins on Sand Mountain.)

Is there an old house or barn tucked away on your property? How about an histori...

Editor's Note: This is the final installment of Joy Odom's Georgia Land Lottery series. For the others, click the history icon from the home page or go to Columns, then History in the Navigator above.

In 1850, most of the households in Dade were headed by people who were not native to Georgia. As a matter of fact, of the 412 heads of household listed in the census, only 32 were born in this state. The largest number, 88,  were...

6th Georgia Captain John Guinn Hanna was killed at Antietam on Sept. 17, 1862. Historical photo courtesy Neal Thompson.

Editor's Note: The following in an excerpt from the Civil War history blog of John Banks concerning the life and especially the death of Capt. John Hanna, the Confederate officer for whom the south Dade neighborhood now known as Rising Fawn was formerly named. Thanks to reader Neal Thompson for pointing it out...

Editor's note: This is a new installment in Joy Odom's ongoing series on the Georgia Land Lottery. For preceding installments, click the history icon on the home page, or "columns," then "history," in the navigator above.

For much of the information I have used in this article, credit must go to Mr..Paul Vance, the Dade County native and lover of history who annotated the 1850 census on which this article is based.

Our county in...

Fort Oglethorpe, Ga.--On Saturday, January 18, at 2 p.m., Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park will present a special program at the Moccasin Bend National Archeological District. This 45-minute talk focuses on the Cherokee who fought alongside Andrew Jackson during the Creek War and takes place at the Gateway site, near 130 Hamm Road, Chattanooga. 

 (Photo: Historical illustration)

The Creek War is viewed mainly a...

Editor's note: This is a new installment in Joy Odom's ongoing series on the Georgia Land Lottery. For preceding installments, click the history icon on the home page, or "columns," then "history," in the navigator above.

Often as I drive through some of the less populated and wilder portions of our county, I try to imagine what it must have been like to arrive here in the 1840s and ‘50s just after Dade became a county unto its...

In 1832, after the forced departure of the Cherokee Indians from what had been their lands for hundreds of years, the state of Georgia began carving the area into new counties and opening these to “fortunate drawers” from the lottery and other new settlers to the area. They really had no right to do so as there was, as yet, no legal settlement/treaty with the Cherokee ceding the lands, but such was the fever to get into these...

Because the procedures used for the previous lotteries had worked so well, the state authorities didn’t make many significant changes in how the 1832 one was conducted. However, in a further effort to make this lottery as fair and open to as many different classes of people as possible, they did increase the number of categories through which people could qualify to draw for land in the new Cherokee County.

The full list is to...