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Abundant with rolling hills, pastoral fields, and verdant forests, it isn’t hard to imagine how Jackson County, Georgia may have appeared before the first pioneers settled here in 1784. 250 years before any of us called Traditions of Braselton “home,” this land belonged to what Gustavus James Nash Wilson deemed “wild animals and wilder men” in his historic account The early history of Jackson county, Georgia. In commemoration of National Native American Month – celebrated every November to honor the rich cultures, traditions, and contributions of Native Americans, we’ll explore the original inhabitants of this land we now know as Traditions of Braselton.

Before it was established as The City of Jefferson – named in honor of one of the original authors of the Declaration of Independence and third president of these United States, Thomas Jefferson – this land was home to a former Indian village called Thomocoggan. Thomocoggan was home to members of the Upper Creek tribe, also known as the Muscogee. All of Jackson County and the neighboring Hall, Barrow, and Gwinnett Counties were rich with members of both Creek and Cherokee tribes. Their trails cross through Jackson County and have served as the foundation of many migration paths and trade routes – which have since become railroad tracks and modern highways.

These Native Americans were likely drawn to what is now Jefferson because it was served by the ample waters of Curry’s Creek and four freely flowing springs. During their time, Curry’s Creek was called Tobesofoskee, and bears, wolves, and panthers freely roamed the land. The forests that surrounded their village were rich with chestnut trees, poplars, pines, and white oaks. The Creek people lived off the land, dining primarily on wild animals, birds, fish, and mud turtles they hunted, or custard-apples, wild beans, pig potatoes, wild berries, and chestnuts they foraged. Their main crop was corn – for which they would perform a ritual dance to ensure a successful harvest. The corn was often cut from the cob and tossed with wild beans to make succotash or dried and ground between two stones to make cornmeal for cakes. If they celebrated Thanksgiving as we do today, a wild turkey may have served as the main course, but it was more likely a wild goose, partridge, boar, or rabbit.

The first settlers – Richard Easley, Abednego Moore, and Johnson Josiah Strong – came to Jackson County in 1786, three years after the official end of the American Revolutionary War with the signing of the Treaty of Paris. With a desire to live in peace alongside the Native Americans in the area, they brought beads, cloth, cookware, and fish hooks to gift to their new neighbors. The Creek traded largely in deer skins. So began a largely peaceful coexistence, but as more settlers arrived, pushing further and further into Creek territory, tensions grew and conflicts arose. The Creek War of 1813 – also known as the Red Stick War, involved the killing of all inhabitants of Fort Mims in Alabama. This news sent fear and shockwaves throughout the South. The war ended just a year later with the Treaty of Fort Jackson, which called for the Creeks to cede much of their land to the government. The final blows came in 1825 and 1826 with the Treaties of Indian Springs and Washington, ceding all remaining Creek lands to the State of Georgia. By the late 1830’s, many of the remaining Creek and Cherokee people were rounded up and compelled to leave their ancestral lands altogether via the Trails of Tears. Those who survived the journey settled in Indian Territory, now known as Oklahoma – more than 1,000 miles from their home.

While our history is not pretty, the Creek and Cherokee people who once lived here left their indelible mark on this land, its people, and generations to come. They shared many of their agricultural practices with early settlers – introducing concepts like crop rotation, irrigation, and crops such as corn, beans, squash, melons, pumpkins, and sweet potatoes. To this day, their legacy lives on in the names of mountain ranges like the Appalachian Mountains and local rivers like the Chattahoochee, Alachua, and Allatoona. The next time you take a walk in the woods in and around Traditions of Braselton, try to envision what it must have looked like through the eyes of those early Native Americans.

Interesting Fact: Before it was called Jefferson, the city in which Traditions of Braselton is based was called by three other names. It began as the Indian village of Thomocoggan, was incorporated as Jeffersonville in 1806, which was changed to Jeffersonton in 1810, before settling on the simpler and more streamlined Jefferson in 1824.

Sources: Wilson, Gustavus James Nash, 1827-1909; White, William Ellis, 1872- ed The early history of Jackson county, Georgia, published 1914

Jerry Weitz & Associates, Inc., Jackson County Comprehensive Plan, HISTORIC RESOURCES: A Chapter of the Technical Appendix Community Assessment, Revised November 16, 2009 https://www.jacksoncountygov.com/DocumentCenter/View/405/Historic-Resources-PDF

Saunt, Claudio, New Georgia Encyclopedia, Creek Indians https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/creek-indians/

American Battlefield Trust, The Creek War of 1813-1814 https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/creek-war-1813-1814

KB 10/28/2025

History, Native American Heritage Month, Traditions of Braselton, Traditions of Braselton history