Milton County | |
|---|---|
Former county | |
 Location of the county withinGeorgia, United States | |
| Country |  United States |
| State |  Georgia |
| Established | 1857 |
| Merged | 1932 |
| Seat | Alpharetta |
| Population (1900) | |
• Total | 6,763 |
Milton County was acounty of theU.S. state ofGeorgia from 1857 (169 years ago) (1857) to 1931 (95 years ago) (1931). It was created on December 18, 1857, from parts of northeasternCobb, southeasternCherokee, and southwesternForsyth counties. The county was named forJohn Milton, Secretary of State of Georgia from 1777 to 1799.[1]Alpharetta was thecounty seat until the end of 1931, when Milton was merged withFulton County to save it from bankruptcy during theGreat Depression.[2] At that time,Campbell County, which had already gone bankrupt, was also ceded to Fulton, giving it its 70-mile (110 km) long irregular shape along theChattahoochee River.
Following the 1932 merger, the Cobb County town ofRoswell was also ceded toFulton four months later on May 9, 1932. The cession of Roswell (including everything east ofWilleo Creek) made the new county more contiguous, though a very narrow strip (what is now theDunwoody Panhandle of Sandy Springs, ceded to Milton fromDeKalb) actually already connected the two sections.
In 1900, there were several otherpost offices besides Alpharetta: Arnold, Coker, Dinsmore, Field's Cross Roads, Freemansville, McClure, Mazeppa, Ocee, Skelton, Stono, and Warsaw. Milton totaled 147 square miles (380 km2) or 94,080 acres. There was a population of 6,763, which was 555 more than at the previous (1890) census. Alpharetta had 310 residents; 1,529 lived in and around it.Methodists andBaptists were the dominant religiousdenominations.[3]
| Census | Pop. | Note | %± |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1860 | 4,602 | — | |
| 1870 | 4,284 | −6.9% | |
| 1880 | 6,261 | 46.1% | |
| 1890 | 6,208 | −0.8% | |
| 1900 | 6,763 | 8.9% | |
| 1910 | 7,239 | 7.0% | |
| 1920 | 6,885 | −4.9% | |
| 1930 | 6,730 | −2.3% | |
| U.S. Decennial Census | |||
 | This section needs to beupdated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(July 2020) |
Fulton County has 10 percent of the state's population, being more populous than eightU.S. states and theDistrict of Columbia. The Fulton County school district is the only non-contiguousschool district in the state, having a 17-mile (27 km) separation (Atlanta Public Schools) between the north and south.
In recent years, some residents of north Fulton County have sought to re-create Milton County. The proposed plan would include some of Georgia's largest cities in a new Milton County, such asRoswell (7th),Sandy Springs (8th),Johns Creek (12th),Alpharetta (13th),Milton (54th), as well asMountain Park.[4]
A February 2009 study completed in collaboration between the University of Georgia'sCarl Vinson Institute of Government and Georgia State University's Andrew Young School of Policy Studies gave a positive analysis of the financial viability of the proposed Milton County.[5]
Abill before theGeorgia General Assembly in 2005 that proposed the inclusion of Sandy Springs would rename the remainder of Fulton County as "Atlanta County". Thestate's constitution, however, now prohibits any more than 159 counties, the number it has had since the merger in 1932. Any change would require aconstitutional amendment, supported bytwo-thirds of each house in the General Assembly and by over half of all voters statewide in areferendum.
On January 9, 2007, state RepresentativeJan Jones, who represents the housedistrict that includes Roswell, and representatives of adjacent districts introduced HR 12. Without mentioning Milton County by name, HR 12 proposed to amend the state constitution to allow the legislature to re-create previous counties regardless of the 159-county limit, if such an action is ratified by voters in the areas of the proposed re-created county. The amendment would disallow voters in the remaining parts of Fulton County from voting on the issue.[6] Jones stated in November 2008 that she would reintroduce the bill in 2009, after theUniversity of Georgia's study of the issue was completed.
A resolution to amend the Georgia Constitution to ease the political path for resurrection of the county was reintroduced by the area's legislators in the2009 session as HR 21 and SR 392.[7] As of 2009 February 18, HR 21 was reported favorably out of committee in a 7–1 vote.[8] Reps. Jan Jones and Mark Burkhalter spoke in favor as well as Fulton County Commissioner Lynne Riley. Lobbyists for Fulton County and City of Atlanta, and Atlanta Dept of Watershed Management[9] Commissioner Robert Hunter spoke against.
As of 2010[update], Jan Jones (who lives in the new city ofMilton, named for the former county) was thespeakerpro tempore of the Georgia House, and was expected to make a strong push for the new county.[10] Theconstitutional amendment would require two-thirds of each house and half of all voters in a statewide referendum to approve the re-creation of former counties (Milton andCampbell). As of October 2021 no proposals have been advanced.[11]
Milton County originally borderedGwinnett to the southeast,Forsyth to the northeast,Cherokee to the northwest,Cobb to the southwest, andDeKalb (Chamblee andDunwoody) to the south. Because the Roswell area was formerly located in Cobb County, there was no border between Fulton and Milton counties before 1932. The northern edge of DeKalb also now no longer touches the river, as it did then. This section, north of Dunwoody Club Drive, is now thepanhandle of Sandy Springs.
| Year | Republican | Democratic | Third party(ies) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | % | No. | % | No. | % | |
| 1880 | 46 | 9.09% | 460 | 90.91% | 0 | 0.00% |
| 1884 | 57 | 10.29% | 497 | 89.71% | 0 | 0.00% |
| 1888 | 56 | 5.85% | 895 | 93.42% | 7 | 0.73% |
| 1892 | 73 | 7.82% | 619 | 66.35% | 241 | 25.83% |
| 1896 | 227 | 33.14% | 428 | 62.48% | 30 | 4.38% |
| 1900 | 116 | 23.82% | 308 | 63.24% | 63 | 12.94% |
| 1904 | 25 | 5.59% | 263 | 58.84% | 159 | 35.57% |
| 1908 | 120 | 33.90% | 182 | 51.41% | 52 | 14.69% |
| 1912 | 17 | 3.83% | 320 | 72.07% | 107 | 24.10% |
| 1916 | 18 | 3.18% | 387 | 68.37% | 161 | 28.45% |
| 1920 | 231 | 45.38% | 278 | 54.62% | 0 | 0.00% |
| 1924 | 53 | 16.16% | 224 | 68.29% | 51 | 15.55% |
| 1928 | 444 | 70.81% | 183 | 29.19% | 0 | 0.00% |
