Rome, GA news and local guide

Rome was founded in 1834 by Colonel Daniel R. Mitchell, Colonel Zacharia Hargrove, Major Philip Hemphill, Colonel William Smith and John Lumpkin, nephew of Governor Wilson Lumpkin, most of them War of 1812 veterans. They drew names at Alhambra, and Mitchell's suggestion, Rome, for the area's hills and rivers, was chosen. The legislature chartered the city in 1835 and the county seat moved there from Livingston. The first steamboat reached Rome on the Coosa in 1836, speeding the cotton trade to New Orleans, and by 1838 the Cherokee had run out of legal ways to resist removal. On May 2, 1863, John H. Wisdom rode from Gadsden, Alabama, to warn that a Union force of over 2,000 men under Colonel Streight were approaching Rome to destroy its foundries; the town prepared its defenses, and Streight surrendered to General Nathan Bedford Forrest. Nearby, Martha Berry, born at Oak Hill, began teaching mountain children in a log cabin in 1900, the start of the Berry Schools and Berry College. Sources Wikipedia: Rome, Georgia The Historical Marker Database: Georgia's Paul Revere (Georgia Historical Commission) The Historical Marker Database: Martha Berry's Birthplace (Georgia Historical Commission)