Aubrey was a mining community centered around large deposits of both manganese and iron
ore. Being about two miles south of White, many of its inhabitants depended on that town for their necessities and many people from White worked at the Aubrey mines. Mining operations began with the Pyrolusite Company, followed by the Dade Coal Company in 1885 and the Southern Mining Company with L. S. Munford, Sam P. Jones, J. W. Akin and T. W. Baxter as directors. In 1889, the Southern Mining Company was bought by Joel Hurt of Atlanta who renamed the company, the Georgia Iron and Coal Company. In 1931, the name was again changed to the Manganese Corporation of America with Joel Hurt remaining as president. Mining manganese ceased in 1945 and iron ore mining ceased around 1954.

This community was named for William P. Aubrey, a native of Cowbridge, Wales, who came to America at age 16, settling in Mobile, Alabama. He soon succeeded in the mercantile business before becoming involved in the Texas War for Independence. Following the war in 1839, he formed a partnership with Henry Lawrence Kinney, establishing a trading outpost on land claimed by both Mexico and Texas. These two would later be credited with founding Corpus Christi, Texas in that same location. At some point, believed to be around 1850, Aubrey married Rosa Matilda Forsyth, daughter of former Georgia Governor John Forsyth who served between 1827 and 1829. Aubrey later moved to Baltimore, Maryland creating considerable wealth only to have his assets confiscated during the Civil War. In 1873, he settled on a farm in Bartow County north of Cartersville in the vicinity of this mining community. He died in 1880 and is buried at his home site near Aubrey.

Source: History of Bartow County, Georgia, Formerly Cass by Lucy Josephine Cunyus.