The History of White County, Georgia — Founding, Cleveland, and Nacoochee

White County, Georgia was formed in 1857 from land taken out of Habersham County, and named in honor of David T. White. Cleveland was chosen as the county seat, itself named for General Benjamin Cleveland, an early settler and War of 1812 veteran. A new brick courthouse, its bricks molded on-site, was built there in 1859 and 1860 by enslaved laborers.

Human settlement in the area predates the county by many centuries. The earliest known communities belonged to the Mississippian culture, sometimes called the Moundbuilders, whose prominent mound at Sautee-Nacoochee is one of many such earthworks found across the state. That mound remains one of the most visible traces of White County's pre-colonial history.

The Nacoochee area also became a center of Georgia's early gold-mining industry after gold was discovered nearby in 1828. The Helen Mine was one of nine gold mines that eventually operated within White County, drawing directly on the same 1828 discovery covered in more detail on this archive's dedicated gold rush page.

See the complete White County records index for obituary, vital-records, and surname pages across the rest of the county.