Trenton is a city located in Dade County, Georgia. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 1,942. The city is the county seat of Dade CountyTemplate:GR.
Offical Flag
The old state flag is now the official banner of this northwest Georgia town. Officials of the city of about 2,000 residents coupled the declaration with a decision to post a plaque bearing the Ten Commandments at city hall. The former state flag was replaced nearly a year ago because it harks back to a Confederacy that defended slavery. But Trenton officials adopted the flag as their own without any public opposition. The city currently flies Georgia's new state flag and the American flag outside the municipal building. A second flagpole will be erected for the old state flag. City officials said the flag should never have been changed. Since the change last year, the old flag has gained new life as a collector's item and a symbol of old-fashioned Southern defiance.
Geography
Trenton is located at 34°52'32" North, 85°30'31" West (34.875609, -85.508644)Template:GR.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 8.0 km² (3.1 mi²). 8.0 km² (3.1 mi²) of it is land and none of it is covered by water.
Dade County is one of 159 counties in Georgia. The county is in the Chattanooga metro area.
Acquisition: Treaty of New Echota
Taken from: Walker County
Counties created from: None
Cities: Trenton (county seat), Rising Fawn, Wildwood
Demographics
| area (sq.km.) | population 2000-04-01 census | population 2003-07-01 est. |
|---|---|---|
| 451.07 | 15,154 | 15,910 |
As of the censusTemplate:GR of 2000, there are 1,942 people, 800 households, and 574 families residing in the city. The population density is 244.2/km² (632.5/mi²). There are 843 housing units at an average density of 106.0/km² (274.6/mi²). The racial makeup of the city is 98.09% White, 0.26% African American, 0.10% Native American, 0.41% Asian, 0.05% Pacific Islander, 0.46% from other races, and 0.62% from two or more races. 1.39% of the population are Hispanic or Latino of any race.
There are 800 households out of which 30.6% have children under the age of 18 living with them, 56.1% are married couples living together, 11.8% have a female householder with no husband present, and 28.3% are non-families. 25.5% of all households are made up of individuals and 11.9% have someone living alone who is 65 years of age or older. The average household size is 2.39 and the average family size is 2.86.
In the city the population is spread out with 22.6% under the age of 18, 8.3% from 18 to 24, 29.2% from 25 to 44, 25.1% from 45 to 64, and 14.7% who are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 38 years. For every 100 females there are 96.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there are 88.8 males.
The median income for a household in the city is $34,612, and the median income for a family is $40,450. Males have a median income of $31,354 versus $22,104 for females. The per capita income for the city is $16,336. 13.4% of the population and 10.5% of families are below the poverty line. Out of the total population, 17.5% of those under the age of 18 and 11.4% of those 65 and older are living below the poverty line.
Attractions
Major Roads and Travel
Interstate 59: I-59 runs North and South and connects Birmingham, Al to Chattanooga, Tn
Interstate 24: I-24 runs West and East and connects Nashville, Tn to Chattanooga, Tn and Chattanooga to Knoxville, Tn.
Highway 136: Hwy-136 runs West and East and connects Dade County to Walker County, Georgia.
Highway 301: Hwy-301 runs North and South.
Highway 299: Runs a top Lookout Mountain and is where Covenant College is located.
Norfolk-Southern Railroad
Timeline
April 15, 1715 - Start of Yamasee War (Yamasee Indians vs. South Carolina)
December 28, 1835 - Micanope and Jumper, two Seminole chiefs, ambush Major Francis Langhorne Dade and kill him and 109 of his infantry detachment. Dade County is named in his honor.
December 25, 1837 - Dade County created from a division of Walker County
-- Creation of Georgia Counties
December 22, 1841 - City of Salem, county seat of Dade County, changes its name to Trenton.
November 24, 2001 - Tornado strikes Dade County, near State Road 157.
History
Established in 1837. Named for Major Francis Langhorne Dade, Infantry, who was killed with 109 men in an ambush known as the "Dade Massacre", by Seminole Indian chiefs Micanope and Jumper, December 28, 1835. If the "State of Dade" suffers an identity crisis, it is understandable. Georgia did not have a road connecting it to this county in the extreme northwest corner of the state until 1939, when the state purchased Cloudland Canyon. Until that time the only access to Dade was from Tennessee or Alabama.
The area today known as Dade County was home to Woodlands period American Indians who built a wall on Pigeon Mountain similar in many ways to the wall built at Fort Mountain. Wauhatchie, who fought with Andy Jackson during the Creek War (1813-1814), was the leader of the Cherokee in this area. He considered himself a friend of the future president. In 1818 he permitted Andrew Ellicott access to his tribal land to determine the northern boundary of Georgia, although it is unlikely that he knew what Ellicott was doing. Twenty years later Wauhatchee and his people would be forced to leave their "Enchanted Land" by his "friend," Andrew Jackson, confined in prison, then sent west on the Trail of Tears. Wauhatchee longed for his ancestrial home and became one of the few Cherokee Indians to return to Georgia and purchase the land he once owned from the settler who won it in the sixth Georgia Land Lottery.
For years after its creation in 1837 the sparsely populated county had virtually no development. The county seat, Salem, changed its name to Trenton on December 22, 1841. Before the Civil War a significant mining operation in the county and its neighbors produced coke and coal for the foundries of Rome and Etowah. Among the earliest members of this mining community that developed was John B. Gordon who would later recruit men from the area to serve under him in the Civil War.
Dade County, 1945
County Road 130 near Rising Fawn
Dade alone amongst the northern tier of counties supported the secession effort in the late 1850's. The term "State of Dade" refers to an incident where a local politician threatened to secede from Georgia if the state did not secede from the Union.
During the war General George Thomas, under the command of William Rosecrans, moved over 40,000 men through the area, building a road to transport war material across the mountainous terrain. Rosecrans briefly stayed in Trenton while advancing from Stevenson, Alabama to the Gordon Mansion. Thomas emerged from Stevens Gap into McLemore's Cove and marched on to Chickamauga. One native of Rising Fawn remembers his grandfather talking about the Union soldiers lighting so many campfires that the valley looked like daylight even at night. During the Battle of Chattanooga a number of minor skirmishes were fought in the county.
By the end of the war mining operations had come to a halt because William Tecumseh Sherman had destroyed the factories further south that used the output for manufacturing during the Atlanta Campaign. By the 1880's mining again resumed, aided by prison labor supplied by the state. The remote county was an excellent place to dispose of the unwanted refuse of society. Coal production would peak at some 700 tons per day until the big seams ran out in 1920. Operations on smaller seams would continue until 1947.
Although largely unaffected by the boom/bust cycles that ripped the state from 1865 to 1940, Dade was "rediscovered" by Georgia in 1939 when the land that became Cloudland Canyon State Park was purchased. In 1945 the county passed a resolution officially joining the Union more than 80 years after the end of the Civil War.