With the recent incorporation of the City of Mableton as the now-largest city in the county, we’ve decided to revisit our series Cobb County history through documents. This is an evergreen article that we periodically expand and update.
The incorporation of Austell, the smallest city in Cobb County, was accomplished by an act of the Georgia legislature passed on September 4, 1885.
But if the city is considered small now with a population of around 8,000, the city was microscopic in size when it was originally incorporated, with a population of 582 in 1890, the first census after incorporation.
In fact it was 1940 before the population exceeded 1,000.
The city limits of the town were a circle with a radius of one half mile from a railway terminal used by the Georgia Pacific Railway Company and the East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia Railroad Company.
If you’re interested in exploring more documents from Cobb County and Georgia history, this document was retrieved from the Georgia Legislative Documents database in GALILEO, available at the Cobb County Public Library website.
Content of Act/Resolution
ACTS AND RESOLUTIONS OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF GEORGIA. 1884-85
Part III.–Local Laws.
TITLE I. MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS.
1884 Vol. 1 — Page: 361
Sequential Number: 234
Short Title: INCORPORATING TOWN OF AUSTELL.
Law Number: No. 161.
Full Title: An Act to incorporate the town of Austell, in Cobb county, and to provide for the election of mayor and council, marshal and clerk, and to define their powers and duties.
Section I. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Georgia, and it is hereby enacted by the authority aforesaid, That from and after the passage of this Act, the town of Austell, in the county of Cobb, shall be incorporated under the name and style of the town of Austell, by which name it shall sue and be sued, plead and be impleaded.
[Sidenote: Name and general powers.]
Sec. II. Be it…
Read the full article here
