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Official Website
History
The county was created in 1818 by an act of the Georgia General Assembly, Gwinnett County was formed from parts of Jackson County (formerly part of Franklin County) and from lands gained through the cession of Creek Indian lands. Named for Button Gwinnett, one of the signatories of the Declaration of Independence, the first county election was held at the home of Elisha Winn, and the first Superior Court was held in his barn.
In 1831 a group of white men were tried and found guilty in Lawrenceville for violating Georgia law by living in the Cherokee Nation without a valid passport from the Governor. Two of the men appealed to the US Supreme Court in Worcester v. Georgia, which resulted in a ruling stating that only the federal government had jurisdiction over native lands, a decision which still stands.
In 1861, all three of Gwinnett County's representatives at the Georgia Constitutional Convention (1861) in Milledgeville voted against secession. Towards the end of the war, Union troops foraged in Gwinnett County as part of the Atlanta Campaign. The Freedmen's Bureau was active in Gwinnett County during Reconstruction. In 1871 the courthouse in Lawrenceville was burned by the Ku Klux Klan in an attempt to avoid prosecution for their crimes, which included the shooting of a black election manager in Norcross.
Early in the county's history, gold mining was a minor industry. The Gwinnett Manufacturing Company, a cotton textile factory, operated in Lawrenceville in the 1850s through 1865, when it burned. The Bona Allen Company in Buford, Georgia produced saddles, harnesses and other leather goods from 1873 to 1981.
Adjacent Counties
- Forsyth County
- Hall County
- Barrow County
- DeKalb County
- Rockdale County
- Fulton County
- Jackson County
- Walton County
Cities
- Auburn (part)
- Berkeley Lake
- Buford (part)
- Dacula
- Duluth
- Grayson
- Lawrenceville (County Seat)
- Lilburn
- Loganville (part)
- Norcross
- Peachtree Corners
- Snellville
- Sugar Hill
- Suwanee
Towns & Communities: Allendale, Braselton (part), Centerville, Five Forks, Mechanicsville, Mountain Park, Rest Haven (part), Rockbridge, Rosebud and Rest Haven (part)
Links
National Register of Historic Places
Gwinnett County Historical Society
