Many Bartow County people have contributed much to the history of Georgia, the South, and the nation. Currently, Bartow County native Robert Benham serves as Chief Justice of the Georgia Supreme Court. Former Georgia Governor, Joe Frank Harris also hails from Bartow County. Other notable Bartow Countians include:

• Amos Tappan Akerman, United States Attorney General
• Warren Akin, Sr., member of the Georgia House of Representatives
• Francis Stebbins Bartow, for whom Bartow County, Georgia was named
• Robert Benham, Chief Justice of Georgia Supreme Court
• Joseph Emerson Brown, for whom Emerson, Georgia was named
• Asa Candler, learned to become a pharmacist in Cartersville and later founded the Coca Cola Company
• Farish Carter, for whom Cartersville, Georgia was named
• Lewis Cass, for whom Cass County, Georgia was named
• Maj. Mark Anthony Cooper, founder of the Etowah Manufacturing and Mining Company
• Rebecca Latimer Felton, first woman US Senator
• Dr. William Harrell Felton, Doctor, Minister, Farmer, Politician
• Corra Mae White Harris, noted Southern author
• Joe Frank Harris Georgia’s 78th Governor
• Samuel Porter Jones, nationally-renowned evangelist
• Huratio A. Luro, Hall of Fame Horse Trainer
• Charlotte Diggs “Lottie Moon”, pioneering missionary to China
• Charles Henry Smith, better known as “Bill Arp”
• William Henry Stiles, charge’ d’affairs to Austria
• William Tatum Wofford, Confederate Brigadier General
• Rudolph Preston “Rudy” York, Major League Baseball Hall of Fame
• Pierce Manning Butler Young, Consul-General to St. Petersburg, Russia and Minister to Guatemala and Honduras under President Grover Cleveland

 

 

---

Amos Tappan Akerman – United States Attorney General

Born: February 23, 1821, Portsmouth, New Hampshire
Died: December 21, 1880, Cartersville, Georgia
Buried: Oak Hill Cemetery, Cartersville, Georgia
Married: Martha Rebecca Galloway

• 1867 elected to Georgia State Constitutional Convention.
• 1869 appointed United States District Attorney for Georgia by President Grant.
• 1870 appointed to serve as U.S. Attorney General.

 

---

Warren Akin, Sr. – Confederate Congressman

Born: October 9, 1811, Elbert County, Georgia
Died: December 17, 1877, Cartersville, Georgia
Buried: Cassville Cemetery, Bartow County, Georgia
Married: Mary F. deVerdery; Eliza Hooper

• 1836 Akin established a successful law practice in Cassville Georgia and was admitted to the Cherokee Superior Court
• 1846 Akin argued the first five cases heard by the Georgia Supreme Court
• 1861 Speaker of the House for the Georgia House of Representatives
• Ordained Methodist Minister who often preached to Civil War troops

 

---

Francis Stebbins Bartow – For Whom Bartow County, Georgia was Named

Born: September 16, 1816, Savannah, Georgia
Died: July 21, 1861, Cartersville, Georgia
Buried: Laurel Grove Cemetery, Savannah, Georgia
Married: Louisa Berrien

• 1837 Admitted to the Georgia State Bar after attending University of Georgia and Yale Law School
• 1861 First Confederate officer to die in battle at the First Battle of Manassas
• 1861 Cass County was renamed to Bartow County in memory of Francis Bartow

 

---

Robert Benham – Chief Justice of Georgia Supreme Court

Born: September 25, 1946, Cartersville, Georgia
Married: Nell Dodson

• Graduate of Summer Hill School, Tuskegee University, Lumpkin School of Law at University of Georgia, University of Virginia as well as attending Harvard University
• Former Captain in the U.S. Army Reserve
• Georgia Supreme Court Justice from 1989 to present. Served as Chief Justice of the Georgia Supreme Court from 1995-2001

 

---

Joseph Emerson Brown – For Whom Emerson, Georgia was Named

Born: April 15, 1821, Pickens, South Carolina
Died: November 30, 1894
Buried: Oakland Cemetery, Atlanta, Georgia

• Former headmaster and lawyer before entering politics
• 1857 – 1865 Georgia’s 42nd Governor
• 1889 Emerson Georgia, formerly known as Stegall’s Station,  is renamed in honor of Georgia’s Senior Senator, Joseph Emerson Brown

 

---

 

Farish Carter – For Whom Cartersville, Georgia was Named

Born: November 24, 1780, Abbeville District, South Carolina
Died: July 2, 1861, Milledgeville, Georgia
Buried: in Memory Hill Cemetery, Milledgeville, Georgia

• Prominent Georgia businessman and farmer in the early 1800’s.
• Owned over 45,000 acres throughout Georgia
• Cartersville was named for Carter during the 1830’s

 

---

 

Lewis Cass – For Whom Cass County, Georgia was Named
Born: October 9, 1782, Exeter, New Hampshire
Died: June 17, 1866
Buried: Elmwood Cemetery, Detroit, Michigan

• 1832 Cass County, Georgia, now Bartow County, was formed from a portion of lands of the Cherokee Indian Nation. Named to honor General Lewis Cass of New Hampshire.
• 1831-1836 Served as Secretary of War under President Andrew Jackson
• 1845-1857 Served as United States Senator from Michigan

 

---

Major Mark Anthony Cooper – Iron King of Georgia

Born: April 20, 1800, Hancock County, Georgia
Died: March 17, 1885
Buried: Oak Hill Cemetery, Cartersville, Georgia
Married: Evaline Flournoy; Sophronia A. R. Randle

• U.S. Congressman and Georgia state legislator
• Major in the Georgia Militia in the 1820’s and 30’s
• 1845 Founded the City of Etowah and established the Etowah Manufacturing and Mining Company on the banks of the Etowah River just south of Cartersville
• Erected the Friendship Monument located in downtown Cartersville

 

---

Rebecca Latimer Felton – First Female United States Senator

Born: June 10, 1835, Decatur, Georgia
Died: January 24, 1930
Buried: Oak Hill Cemetery, Cartersville, Georgia
Married: Dr. William Harrell Felton

• 1874 began a prominent and successful career as a political strategist and advisor
• Columnist for the Atlanta Journal for twenty-eight years
• 1922 First Female United States Senator

 

---

William Harrell Felton – Doctor, Minister, Farmer, Politician

Born: June 19, 1823, Lexington, Georgia
Died: September 24, 1909
Buried: Oak Hill Cemetery, Cartersville Georgia
Married: Rebecca A. Latimer; Ann Carleton

• 1844 Graduate of Medical College of Augusta, pursued a career in medicine and farming in Bartow County
• Served as a volunteer surgeon in Macon during the Civil War
• Politically active his entire life, known as an outstanding orator and debater.
• Wife Rebecca Felton erected a monument to his memory on the lawn of the 1903 Bartow County Courthouse

 

---

Corra Mae White Harris – Nationally Acclaimed Writer/Author

Born: May 17, 1869, Elbert County, Georgia
Died: February 7, 1935, Atlanta, Georgia
Buried: “In the Valley” in Pine Log, Georgia
Married: Lundy Harris

• Wrote A Circuit Rider’s Wife, loosely based on her early travels with her husband, a Methodist Minister
• During World War I, served as the first female war correspondent for the Saturday Evening Post
• Restored an abandoned Indian cabin in Pine Log which later became known as “In the Valley”

 

---

 

Joe Frank Harris – Georgia’s 78th Governor

Born: February 16, 1936, in the mill village of ATCO, now Cartersville, Georgia
Married: Elizabeth Carlock

• 1953 began his military service which included the Georgia Air National Guard, U.S. Army Reserves and the U.S. Army
• Two term Governor of Georgia,  1982 and 1986
• Over twenty six years of distinguished public service
• Wrote his memoirs in Personal Reflections on a Public Life

 

---

Reverend Samuel Porter Jones – Nationally Renowned Evangelist

Born: October 16, 1847 in Oak Bowery, Alabama,
Died: October 15, 1906
Buried: in Oak Hill Cemetery, Cartersville, Georgia
Married: Laura McElwain

• 1867 graduate from Euharlee Academy and was schooled by William and Rebecca Felton
• 1872 entered the Methodist ministry and became a famous and celebrated evangelist
• His home Roselawn, is a house museum open to the public located in Cartersville

 

---

Horatio A. Luro – Hall of Fame Horse Trainer

Born: February 27, 1901, Argentina
Died: December 16, 1991, Bal Harbor, Florida
Buried: Oak Hill Cemetery, Cartersville, Georgia
Married: Francis Weinman Latimer

• 1937 came to the US from Argentina as a horse trainer and breeder
• Married to the former Francis Weinman Latimer of Cartersville, local horse training was done at Old Mill Farm in Cartersville
• 1980 inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame

 

---

Charlotte Diggs “Lottie” Moon – Baptist Missionary to China

Born: December 12, 1840, Albermarle County, Virginia
Died: December 24, 1912
Buried: Crewe Cemetery, Crewe, Virginia

• 1861 Graduated Albemarle Female Institute in Charlottesville VA with a Master of Arts Degree
• 1871 Owned and operated the Cartersville Female Seminary
• 1873 Controversial appointment as missionary to China, which led to a lifetime of distinguished missionary service

 

 

---

Charles Henry Smith “Bill Arp” – Great American Humorist / Writer

Born: June 15, 1826, Lawrenceville, Georgia
Died: August 24, 1903
Buried: Oak Hill Cemetery, Cartersville, Georgia
Married: Mary Octavia Hutchins

 

• 1861 Joined the Confederate Army reaching rank of Major under Colonel Francis Bartow
• 1861 -1903 Starting with a letter to President Lincoln, Smith wrote books, articles, letters and a column under the name “Bill Arp“
• Author Mark Twain was quoted to consider Smith as “one of the few real American humorists”

 

---

William Henry Stiles – Ambassador to Austria 

Born: January 1, 1809, Savannah Georgia
Died: December 20, 1865
Buried: Laurel Grove Cemetery, Savannah, Georgia
Married: Eliza Mackay Stiles

• 1832 Became a member of the Georgia Bar after graduating from Yale Law School
• 1832 – 1858 Held numerous roles in public service including a diplomatic position in Austria
• Etowah Cliffs on the Etowah River was his home outside of Cartersville. Nearby Stilesboro was named in his honor in 1845.

 

---

General William Tatum Wofford – Confederate Brigadier General

Born: June 28, 1824, Habersham County, Georgia
Died: May 22, 1884
Buried: Cassville Cemetery, Cassville, Georgia
Married: Julia A. Dwight, Margaret Langdon

• 1845 admitted to the Georgia Bar, established his law practice in Cassville, Georgia
• 1847  raised a company of Calvary and joined the Mexican wars
• 1850-1860’s held various political titles in Georgia, including serving with William Felton in the Georgia State Legislature
• 1863 Ranked a Brigadier General including command of Cobb’s Legion.
• Worked tirelessly to protect citizens during and after the Civil War

 

---

Rudolph Preston “Rudy” York – Major League Baseball Player

Born: August 17, 1913, Ragsdale, Alabama,
Died:  February 5, 1970
Buried: Sunset Memory Gardens, Cartersville Georgia

• Began his baseball career on the Atco Fields playing for the Goodyear Plant
• Played in three World Series and six All Star Games
• Inducted in Sports Hall of Fame
•  

 

---

 

Pierce Manning Butler Young – Confederate Major General

Born: Spartanburg, South Carolina, November 15, 1836
Died: July 6, 1896
Buried: Oak Hill Cemetery, Cartersville Georgia

• Graduate of the Georgia Military Academy and attended West Point U.S. Military Academy where George Custer was his roommate
• 1839 moved to his family home of “Walnut Grove” located in Cartersville
• 1861 enlisted in the Confederate Army, promoted to Brigadier General in 1863, promoted to Major General in 1864
• Credited with being the youngest major general to serve in the Confederate Army