Habersham

After the Creeks and Cherokees were removed from Georgia, a land lottery was held for the purpose of drawing land. In Habersham, the draw was for 250 and 490 acres. Many settlers came from Virginia, Maryland, and North Carolina. Ancestor Researchers should also search the records in Rabun, Banks, White, and Cherokee Counties. Thus, Habersham County was created in 1818 and was named for Joseph Habersham, Revolutionary War Soldier, and US Postmaster General, a direct descendant of the prominent James Habersham, the first settler to Savannah. It lies in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in North East Georgia. The first white inhabitants inhabited lands that came from the Indian cessions of 1818 and 1819. They settled along the banks of the county’s four major rivers, the Chattahoochee, Soque, Tallulah, and Tugaloo. When gold was discovered in northeast Georgia, this resulted in the Cherokee removal of 1838. Parts of the original county lands were given to Banks, Cherokee, Lumpkin, Rabun, Stephens, and White counties, decreasing Habersham County to 278 square miles.