Editing Fannin County, Georgia (section)

==History==
Prior to [[European colonization]], the area that is now Fannin County was inhabited by the [[Cherokee]] people and other Indigenous peoples for thousands of years.
[[File:Downtown_Blue_Ridge,_Georgia,_in_Fannin_County_at_sunset_01.jpg|thumb|Blue Ridge is the county seat]]
Fannin County was founded on January 12, 1854, taken from 396 square miles that were previously part of [[Gilmer County, Georgia|Gilmer]] and [[Union County, Georgia|Union]] counties.<ref>{{cite book | url=http://www.kenkrakow.com/gpn/f.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030917111250/http://www.kenkrakow.com/gpn/f.pdf |archive-date=September 17, 2003 |url-status=live | title=Georgia Place-Names: Their History and Origins | publisher=Winship Press | author=Krakow, Kenneth K. | year=1975 | location=Macon, GA | pages=76 | isbn=0-915430-00-2}}</ref> The county is named for Georgia native [[James Fannin|James W. Fannin]],<ref>{{cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_9V1IAAAAMAAJ | title=The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States | publisher=Govt. Print. Off. | author=Gannett, Henry | year=1905 | pages=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_9V1IAAAAMAAJ/page/n122 123]}}</ref> who fought and died during the [[Texas Revolution]].

Although the county was majority pro-secession at the beginning of the Civil War, wartime conditions inspired a notable number of anti-Confederate "Tories" as early as 1862, many of whom re-located to pro-Union areas of Tennessee for the duration. This contributed to the postwar establishment of a countywide Republican Party earlier and more sustained than almost any other county in Georgia.<ref>A Separate Civil War: Communities in Conflict in the Mountain South, Jonathan Dean Sarris</ref>