[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 178 (Thursday, December 20, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2341]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           HONORING THE 150TH ANNIVERSARY OF POLK COUNTY, GA

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                             HON. BOB BARR

                               of georgia

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, December 19, 2001

  Mr. BARR of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, formed in 1851 by an act of the 
Georgia Legislature, Polk County, Georgia, was named for James Knox 
Polk, a former governor of Tennessee and the 11th President of the 
United States. With a population of 38,127 people and a land area of 
311 square miles, Polk County is located in northwest Georgia.
  For more than a hundred years the Cherokee and Creek Indians reigned 
supreme in north Georgia. The southernmost village in the Cherokee 
Nation was on Cedar Creek, which is located just off Main Street in 
present-day Cedartown, the county seat of Polk County. In 1826, two 
white men, Linton Walthall and Hampton Whatley, visited the area. They 
returned in 1832 to establish stores, and the community began to 
develop. In 1838, the Cherokee were moved into small forts, and then 
forced west on The Trail of Tears. In 1852, the first courthouse was 
built on a 20-acre site which had been donated to the town of Cedartown 
(then called ``Cedar Town'') by Asa Prior. Two years later the town was 
incorporated.
  The War Between the States was not kind to Cedar Town. However, after 
the war, in 1867 the area began to grow and the town of Cedartown 
prospered, as did much of the surrounding area, including the towns of 
Rockmart and Aragon.
  The residents of Polk County are preparing for Polk County's 150th 
birthday celebration. Tentative plans include special music, 
recognition of the oldest living person in the County, the oldest 
married couple, the longest married couple, the youngest citizen, and 
the oldest church in the County. Commemorative coins and Christmas 
ornaments have been designed, cedar trees have been requisitioned to be 
presented to schools, and a game of Polk historical trivia is being 
compiled and will be distributed to schools. Students in Polk County 
schools are being asked to follow specific guidelines to design a flag 
which would best represent the County. Some items which could be 
represented on the flag are the City of Aragon as a manufacturing 
utopia; the City of Cedartown for its cedar trees and for its original 
inhabitants; the Cherokees; and the slate quarries in Rockmart.
  Polk County's sesquicentennial Birthday Celebration will be held on 
the evening of December 20th, 2001, on the steps of the Courthouse in 
Cedartown, Georgia. It would behoove us all to take the time to 
celebrate our heritage and stop to share the stories of our past with 
our children and grandchildren. The term ``home town USA'' truly 
describes the people of Polk County. They are kind, generous, caring 
folks and I am pleased to call many of them my friends. Happy Birthday 
Polk County!!

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