Murray County Genealogy, Wills, Estates, Maps, Marriages
Murray County was created from Cherokee County on Dec. 3, 1832, by an Act of the General Assembly. Before that, it was occupied by the Cherokee Nation of North Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, and North Carolina and Chief Vann farmed in this county.
The " Trail of Tears" and Fort Hoskins
During 1838 the remnants of the Cherokee Nation were rounded up by Federal Forces and the Georgia Militia and put into military stocks for the eventual removal to reservations in Indian Territory. On May 30th, seventy-nine Cherokee Indians were captured and guarded at Fort Hoskins under the command of Captain Thomas S. Jones. On June 9th, 1838 it was reported that 122 captives had been sent directly to Ross Landing. In all, about 7000 U.S. Soldiers and Georgia militias forced some 15,000 Cherokee Indians into stockades and held them for removal. It is believed that many Cherokees probably died in the stockades.
Images of Murray County Wills 1840-1872
Testators: Adair, Edward ; Anderson, James ;Bailey, William ;Bates, Andrew J. ;Bates, John ;Bates, Julius ;Black, George ;Drummond, Daniel ;Ducket, Martha; Dwight, Samuel ;Fitzpatrick, Jackson ;Gaither, Elizabeth; Gray, Robert ;Hall, Drury ;Harrison, Nathan ;Hawkins, John;Hill, Richard; Humphries, David; Humphreys, Joab ;Jackson, Littlebury ;Johnson, Jason ;Jurkin, Samuel;Killingsworth. Francis; King, Elias ;McClain, William ;McCurdy, Stephen ;McEntire, John ;McGhee, James ;Murray, Samuel ;Neal, Adam ;Neal, Robert ;Parr, Charles ;Patterson, Robert C.; Pickett, James; Ray, William ;Ray, William J. ;Royston, Lewis ;Shelton, Elizabeth ;Sloan, Robert; Stevenson, John ;Stewart, Susan ;Stown, Luke ;Terry, Duncan; Terry, Lewis; Thompson, Benjamin ;Vining, Albert ;Wilkinson, John ;Wilson, Martha J.
The Meanderings of Native Indians
Native Americans were constantly at war with other tribes. Some of the smaller tribes (or losers) were swallowed up and lost in identity. The tribes follow the Buffalo. Records were not kept of births, deaths, etc. They did not marry white women but sometimes captured them as slaves. White families had no chance of retrieving their women. Benjamin Hawkins, a Creek agent in Georgia during its colonization, kept his own journals. Thus, the materials to be examined are those kept by Indian Agents (if one can find such items) who wrote in English and sometimes clarified the English version of an Indian name. These agents were in Charleston, South Carolina, and Savannah, Georgia where all of the records survive. I strongly recommend reading the deeds and affidavits (colonial writing) to gain historical knowledge of the times and discover more information.
Cherokees in the Cohutta Mountains
There is a range of mountains in Murray County which were once occupied by the Cherokee Indians; viz: Big Frog Mountain, Fort Mountain and Grassy Mountain. Actually, the recent discovery there by archaeologist Julia Sennette revealed a ceremonial site and several monoliths, quarried into geometrical shapes.
