Paulding County, The Past, Present and Future of its Present County Town, Dallas.

Paulding county once included all that territory west of us, now Polk county, and a part of Haralson, with her county site Vanwert. We have no access to the records that would show us about what time the original surveys were made, nor is it especially relevant to the matter we now wish to consider, suffice it to say the county was named in honor of Paulding, and the county site, Vanwert, in honor of Vanwert, 2 of the three captors, New York militia, that arrested and delivered the distinguished Major Andre to the authorities. Who our readers will remember confessed, was tried, convicted and hung as a British spy during the revolutionary war.

The county was settled up by the hardy sons of toil who rapidly came in from the more populous eastern counties and states, here to find a virgin soil almost unequalled in point of fertility, and a climate as salubrious as any portion of the Blue Ridge region.

The great influx of settlers necessitated the formation of a new county, and about the year 1851 the Polk county and part of Haralson county sections were lopped off and then old Paulding had to cast about for a new capital.

Mr. Garrett H. Spinks, who had recently moved here from over on Raccoon creek, donated forty acres of his land (reserving only two lots) and here the town of Dallas was established about the year ’54 or ’55.

Hiram Whitworth was at that time representative of this people in the legislature of Georgia, and no doubt he was instrumental in having Dallas incorporated. Garrett H. Spinks was next chosen representative for the session of ’55 and ’56, and again ’75, ’76.

Many of the old settlers are still in the county, in the enjoyment of good health and all the blessings of a merciful providence, and according to the laws of health, they stand among us today monuments of the good old days of “Lang Syne” when men loved purity of life and regularity of habits, more than in these more modern times.

Here were the Adairs, the Braswells, the Bones, the Baxters, the Dunagans, the Dentons, the Dyers, the Elsberrys, the Edwardses, the Footes, the Hogans’s, the Hollands, the Hollises, the Harrisons, the Johnsons, the Jackson’s, the Pooles, the Robinsons, (Uncle Charley), and on down to the foot of the alphabet. Some are still on “this side of the river,” others have passed over, but there scions are with us, fair specimens of an honest, intelligent and industrious people.

The court house and jail were built in the year ’53, and for some offense the authorities locked up a certain party one night, and not long after his release the jail was burned down, though it was never known whether the late prisoner had anything to do with it.

Our clever townsman, ex sheriff Henry Braswell, was first marshal. Like most new towns Dallas passed through the deal of crime and trial and affliction.

Not attaining such proportions as at first anticipated by her citizens, they, as is sometimes the case, lost interest in the municipality, and failing to hold their regular elections, about the year ’58 or ’59 the town died a natural death to all intents and purposes. The population was then about 150 or 200 persons, all told. We do not give the exact figures in any particular, either of the past or present, as the census records are not at hand, but these figures are from the oldest inhabitant’s recollections.

Dallas moved along in the even tenor of her way, until the next great and startling event was about to transpire, via: the building of a railroad through here. Then it was she just got up and shook herself, out generalled the New Hope people along the other survey of the new road, got it to come this way, buy her lands, build a large and ornamental depot, and other buildings, and then she began to throw out her grappling hooks into the other parts of the country and pull them in until from a population in 1881 of 250, she now claims 700 and over, and still insatiate she cries for more.

By a technicality, as the lawyers would say, she failed of a new charter from the last legislature, but expects to have one in July next. We have much of the best material in Georgia for building up and maintaining a town, and we are going on from town to city, as sure as the sun rises in all his glory and splendor. The march of progress is sure and the sound of the footstep will long be heard adown the corridors of time.

Formerly one hundred bales of cotton was the extent of Dallas’s cotton purchases, but this last season over two thousand bales have been shipped from here, and the next season 10,000 will not be an over estimate. we have now about thirty different kinds of business enterprises, including mercantile, manufacturing, etc. A radius of about 10 miles in every direction, except toward Powder Springs, and about eight miles that way, to sustain the town, with ample church, school and trade facilities, and now we invite everybody to come to Dallas, that we may have a greater diversity of industries and trades.

Our people are characterized for honesty, industry and intelligence, and they will pay their debts, so what is there to stop the car of progress?

In this brief sketch we could not particularize all men and events as we desired, for want of space and time, nor were we able to intersperse it with any of the rich anecdotes of the early settlers, but we are here now, fully identified with the other enterprises of Dallas, and from time to time we may recur to former times and usages, and we shall ever look after the interests of old Paulding and her people.