3. Button Gwinnett
• Born in England in 1735
• Married in 1757
• Had 3 Children, all girls
• Came to Georgia in 1765
• Fails in Business several
times. Petty Merchant
• Good Politician. Elected to
Colonial Legislature
• Elected President of Georgia
Committee of Safety
• Champion of Non-elite. Gets
elected Commander of
Georgia’s Militia but resigns
• Goes to Continental
Congress instead, and signs
Declaration of Independence
4. Button Gwinnett
• Disagrees with leader of Elite
Revolutionary Members in
Georgia
• Elite see him as beneath them,
but he irritates them
• Dismisses soldiers not loyal to
his party
• Challenged to duel with Lachlan
McIntosh, May 16, 1777.
• Both men wounded but
Gwinnett dies three days later.
McIntosh leaves Georgia as an
assistant to George Washington
7. Basics
• Founded in 1817 from land deeded from treaty with
Creek Indians.
• Legal foundation of Cherokee Removal took place in
Lawrenceville in early 1830s
• Largely typical rural county until 1960
• Construction of I-85 in early 1960s increased growth
of county
• 1970s White Flight from Atlanta made Gwinnett
really take off
• 1990s Gwinnett became ethnically diverse
• In 2010, Gwinnett 2nd most populous county in state
9. The Trail of Tears
Began in Lawrenceville
• Clayton Street is
named for the judge
who presided over all
the original court
cases that ultimately
led to the removal of
the Cherokee from
Georgia in 1830s
29. Conclusions
• Gwinnett is currently the second most
populous county in the state
• Gwinnett was a somewhat typical rural county
until about 1950
• The 1970s experienced the greatest growth
rate, but the county continues with greater
growth than the rest of the state
• The 1990s started a real growth in diversity
