Draketown was founded by the
Cherokee people, who called it "Long Leaf". The area was at that time referred to as the "Long Leaf Post Office." The name Long Leaf came from a long-leaf pine that grew in the area. The men from
Ducktown, Tennessee named the area Draketown because a drake is a male
duck. In 1896, the population was reported to be 100. In 1907, the population was recorded as 300.
Tallapoosa (Waldrop) coppermine The Tallapoosa (Waldrop) copper mine was settled by
pioneers before Haralson County was established, from as early as 1857. It was located approximately 100 yards north of Coppermine Road, 600 yards east of the Tallapoosa River. The land of the mine, and three additional land plots, was bought by Thomas Greer Waldrop for $600. "Copper excitement" started when Elijah Brooks was plowing on the western area of Long Leaf. As he was plowing, he discovered some bright yellow granular material that burned when set on fire, suggestive of
copper. Brooks took it for further inspection in
Villa Rica; a sample was sent to
Tennessee. Immediately prospectors and promoters from Tennessee came to Haralson County. Work began on the copper mine and by 1874, a 48-foot vertical shaft was sunk by the
Tennessee group. The two formed the Tallapoosa Mining Company. There were a few strong and useful men among the early settlers who became identified with
Haralson County. These men, realizing the advantages of having a county seat near their homes, influenced the General Assembly to pass an act creating the new county. A majority of the inhabitants of the county are probably descendants of these men: John Jackson Kirk, Captain W.J. Head; B.R. Walton; Martin Ayers; William Garner; Allen Philpot; C.C. Eaves; William Summerville; William J. Brown; Dr. William Gaulding; Dr. D.B. Head; John K. Holcombe Jr.; Seaborn Goldin; Dr. W.F. Goldin; A.J. Hunt; William L. Kelley; Joe W. Kelley; Dr. R.B. Hutcheson; William Johnson; William Morgan; Benjamin F. Morgan Jr.; Andrew J. Stewart; John Rowell; and John McClung."
Physicians Robert Berry Hutcheson The first physician of Draketown was Robert Berry Hutcheson. Hutcheson was elected a delegate to represent the thirty-eighth Senatorial District in the constitutional convention of 1867-68 and he was elected to represent Haralson County during 1873-74 in the Georgia General Assembly. He was again elected in 1886 to the Georgia Assembly. Eventually, other medical doctors joined him as residents. They included Ivie Golden,
Benjamin Franklin Eaves, William Franklin Goldin, and William Love Hogue.
Benjamin Franklin Eaves Benjamin Franklin Eaves was the son of Cleburn Camp Eaves and Mary Amanda Kirk, both first pioneers of Haralson County. He attended Emory University and focused his entire practice in the Draketown Community serving Paulding, Carroll, Polk, and Haralson County residents. During the beginning of his career, Eaves was known as the "horse and buggy" doctor. In 1914, he purchased his first car.
William Franklin Golden William Franklin Golden, son of Seaborn Golden and Sara Whitton, was a medical doctor and surgeon who practiced in Haralson, Polk, Paulding, and Carroll counties for forty years. He studied at Tallapoosa High School, and graduated Atlanta Medical College in 1877. In 1888, he took graduate classes in surgery at the London School of Medicine Golden was a contractor in the building of the Haralson County Courthouse, now the Buchanan Library in Buchanan, Georgia. He was also president of the Temple Banking Company.
William Love Hogue William Love Hogue, son of William Thomas Hogue and Mattie Bagby Hogue, was born September 7, 1880, in Paulding County near Concord Baptist Church. He attended Villa Rica school, then later Atlanta Medical College (now Emory University), graduating in 1907. After graduating, he became partners with Dr. William Franklin Goldin. On April 2, 1908, he became a member of Draketown Baptist Church. In December of the same year, he married Pearl McBrayer, of Draketown. In 1920, Hogue left Draketown and started a practice in Villa Rica.
Other important pioneers Drawn by the school and the doctors in Draketown, many people moved to the area. Oss Carroll ran a dry-goods store on a corner across the street from Dr. W.F. Goldin's house (torn down November 17, 2015). In 1905, the first steam-powered vehicle arrived in Draketown, accompanied by a mule. The first internal-combustion automobile arrived in 1910. It was a
Model T Ford owned by Dr. W.F. Golden. A year later, four
Maxwell cars, one owned by
Dr. B.F. Eaves, arrived. Most of the citizens could not afford automobiles, and traveled by horse and buggy or wagon instead. It took an entire day to travel one-way to or from the county seat,
Buchanan. On May 31, 1925, around 5,000 citizens of Haralson County came to the site where Mrs. Stewart was shot to see the unveiling of a 15-foot tall, white marble monument erected by the
Ku Klux Klan. == Famous Draketown Residents ==