About

Enabled by the Cherokee Land Lottery of 1832, Howell Cobb published the first issue of the Cherokee Intelligencer in the newly formed Cherokee County, Georgia on February 15, 1833. The Intelligencer made its appearance so early in Cherokee County’s history that the place of publication was listed as 'Cherokee County, C. H. [Court House]' until December 1833. Cobb, a lawyer and former state senator from Houston County, Georgia, is not to be confused with the younger future 40th Governor of Georgia. As early as January 10, 1833, the older Howell Cobb began circulating the prospectus for a weekly newspaper entitled the Cherokee Intelligencer. The subscription was set at three dollars per year and acted as Cherokee County’s legal organ. Although he was sympathetic of the states rights’ doctrines gaining popularity in the 1830s, Cobb made clear in his prospectus that ‘we are uncompromising Union men, and feel and consider ourselves identified with all those that now rally under the standard of the twenty-four States.’ Cobb also set up a law office in the county, and he practiced law in the nearby counties of Cass, Murray, Forsyth, Lumpkin, and Floyd; with the exception of Lumpkin, all the other counties were formed out of the recently seized Cherokee land. The Intelligencer and nearby Western Herald (Auraria), so close to Georgia’s frontier, carried weekly updates related to the establishment of local governments and towns, and they listed gold and land lots up for sale. Among the Intelligencer’s most widely circulated reports were those regarding John Ross, the Cherokee Nation’s Principal Chief. By December 1833, Cobb listed the place of publication as ‘Edahwah [Etowah], Georgia,’ the county seat. The town name became Canton in 1834 and remains Cherokee County’s seat today. The Intelligencer ceased publication on March 15, 1834, when Cobb moved to Auraria, Georgia and partnered with Milton H. Gathright to form the Miners Recorder and Spy in the West.