James September-October 2024 web - Flipbook - Page 15
obb County was Cherokee Native American
territory until 1832,
when it was chartered
by the Georgia General Assembly.
It was few years later, in 1834,
when the county seat of Marietta
was founded. Cobb was named
after U.S. Sen. Thomas Cobb and
Marietta for his wife, Mary Cobb.
Thus began the area’s unique
and storied history, and as the years
rolled along many folks sought this
Piedmont region of Georgia as a respite for a cooler climate rather than
traveling further south to the coast
during the hot summer.
Much like the capital city of Atlanta, Marietta was a railroad town
and that helped bring in goods and
services for new businesses. A tan-
nery was opened by John Glover in
1848, and he became the city’s first
mayor in 1852. The iconic park in
Marietta Square was named Glover
Park in his honor.
Marietta was greatly affected
by the Civil War in 1864 during
Northern Gen. William Sherman’s
infamous march to the sea. If you
visit the sacred grounds of Kennesaw Mountain National Park,
you will gain insight into what the
Confederate and Union sides tragically endured during battle. And
then there’s Marietta’s Confederate cemetery where the bodies of
some 3,000 Rebel soldiers rest in
peace. As the city rebuilt after the
Civil War, though, infrastructure
was significantly improved by adding sidewalks, paved streets and
gas lighting to elevate the city’s
aesthetic.
From Railroad City
to Prosperous County
Fast-forward to the early
1900s. That’s when Cobb was
in a financial downturn due to a
discouraging farm economy and
low-wage job prospects. Enter the
government-owned, contractor-operated Bell Aircraft plant in 1942,
a welcomed event which significantly boosted the city and county.
It employed over 28,000 people to
manufacture the famed B-29 Bomber plane and helped bring the community out of the Depression era
of the 1930s. The B-29 was a technically advanced four-engine mammoth-sized plane that would be the
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