Murray County, Georgia
| Murray County, Georgia | |
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Murray County courthouse in Chatsworth
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 Location in the U.S. state of Georgia |
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 Georgia's location in the U.S. |
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| Founded | 1832 |
| Seat | Chatsworth |
| Largest city | Chatsworth |
| Area | |
| • Total | 347 sq mi (899 km2) |
| • Land | 344 sq mi (891 km2) |
| • Water | 2.2 sq mi (6 km2), 0.6% |
| Population | |
| • (2010) | 39,628 |
| • Density | 115/sq mi (44/km²) |
| Congressional district | 14th |
| Time zone | Eastern: UTC-5/-4 |
| Website | www |
Murray County is a county located in the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2010 census, the population was 39,628. The county seat is Chatsworth.
Murray County is part of the Dalton, GA Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is also included in the Chattanooga-Cleveland-Dalton, TN-GA-AL Combined Statistical Area.
In December, 1832 the Georgia General Assembly designated the extreme northwestern corner of the state as Murray County. Formerly part of Cherokee County, the area was named for a distinguished Georgia statesman from Lincoln County, Mr. Thomas W. Murray, a former speaker of the Georgia House. Within a short time the legislature found the county was too large to administer properly as the population grew, for the county then included what is now Dade, Walker, Catoosa, Whitfield, Murray, Gordon and parts of Bartow and Chatooga Counties, so further division became necessary. Within two decades, Murray County came to be 342 square miles (886 km2) of land with Spring Place as its county seat until the railroad was built through Chatsworth. With Chatsworth more accessible, the county seat was moved there.
The area was in the heart of the Cherokee Nation at the time the boundary lines were drawn through the territory. Not until after the Cherokees were removed in 1838–39 did white settlers enter the county in large numbers. Spring Place had been established in 1801 as a Moravian mission to the Cherokee and had been a post office since 1810 – the second oldest in North Georgia. Sometime during the late 19th Century James B. Brackett donated the land upon which the Brackett Indian School was built. The school did not always function as a segregated Indian school. At one point in its previously integrated history it was referred to as the Lone Cherry School.
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