Cass Station is a community which grew out of the construction of the Western & Atlantic Railroad which reached this area in April 1845. A train depot was built and named for the town of Cassville, approximately two miles northeast. The original survey for the railroad in 1837 by Stephen H. Long bypassed Cassville, the county seat, in order to avoid the steep grades northeast of the town. Georgia faced serious financial difficulties in the construction of the railroad and wanted to avoid additional costs associated with added mileage just to accommodate the citizens of Cassville. In December 1853, the citizens succeeded in getting the Georgia Legislature to approve an act providing for an alternate route through Cassville. l However, the act required the citizens of Cassville to bear all expense associated with the survey and cost of construction. Evidently the people of Cassville found that the costs would be far greater than they would be justified in assuming. This decision would ultimately be fatal to Cassville’s future.

After the burning of Cassville on November 5, 1864 by Union soldiers, the town was never rebuilt, primarily because of its distance from the railroad. By an act of the Georgia legislature in 1866, the question of the location of a new county seat was decided: “Whereas, the county seat of Bartow county was entirely destroyed by the Federal army; and whereas, the former citizens of said town have declined an attempt to rebuild it; and whereas, the people of said county are desirous of locating the site on the Western & Atlantic”; an election was held in Cartersville on the first Monday in January 1867 to decide between Cartersville and Cass Station. Cass Station lost by 166 votes, ending any possibility that Cass station would ever be a town.

Following the war, Cass Station was awarded a post office which served the community from 1868 to 1950. By 1900, Cass Station included two stores, a gin, a sawmill and the original depot. The community also had Wofford’s Academy, a school named in honor of Cass Station’s own Confederate Brigadier General William T. Wofford. When the school was built is unknown, but it was in operation by 1880 and destroyed by fire in 1905. Further educational opportunities existed with the new Model School established by the local Woman’s Club with assistance from the Federation of Women’s Clubs in Georgia and Massachusetts. The school building remained in use into the 1950’s as part of the Bartow County School System. The old train depot lost its importance to the railroad over time and was last used as a warehouse before being destroyed by fire in the late1970’s. Ruins of the old depot can be seen on the east side of the railroad where it crosses Burnt Hickory Road, several hundred yards west of GA Highway 293. For additional information, refer to the history of “Cassville”.

Source: A History of Old Cassville 1833-1864 by Joseph B. Mahan, Jr.; History of Bartow County, Georgia, Formerly Cass by Lucy Josephine Cunyus; Bartow County Georgia Heritage Book Vol. II, Compiled by Bartow County Genealogical Society; pages 52 and 53.