Keithsburg, population 205, is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

in Cherokee County,

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

, United States.

History

Keithsburg was established in the mid nineteenth-century along the railroad northeast of

Canton Canton may refer to: Administrative divisions * Canton (administrative division), territorial/administrative division in some countries * Township (Canada), known as ''canton'' in Canadian French Arts and entertainment * Canton (band), an It ...

. The community was named after the local Keith family and its Keith Plantation, one of the oldest

plantations Plantations are farms specializing in cash crops, usually mainly planting a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. Plantations, centered on a plantation house, grow crops including cotton, cannabis, tobacco ...

in Cherokee County. During the

Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

, the Keith family buried its valuables and suspended its food in trees in order to hide it from the approaching Union Army. The soldiers found the food and, as vengeance for the family's deception, burned their house and hanged the family patriarch from a tree. However, his life was spared by the knot in the rope getting caught and failing to break his neck. The Keith house was rebuilt in 1865 from kiln-dried bricks made of clay from the nearby

Etowah River The Etowah River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed April 27, 2011 waterway that rises northwest of Dahlonega, Georgia, Dahlonega, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia, ...

Current status

Today, the Keith property is in shambles, with

kudzu Kudzu (), also called Japanese arrowroot or Chinese arrowroot, is a group of climbing, coiling, and trailing deciduous perennial vines native to much of East Asia, Southeast Asia, and some Pacific islands. It is invasive species, invasive in ...

covering what remains of the house and barns. Neither the county of Cherokee nor the city of Canton have expressed an interest in preserving the property. Remains of slave quarters and an Indian burial ground can be found on the property.

References

External sources

Keithsburg, Canton, Georgia - Nextdoor
{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Cherokee County, Georgia Unincorporated communities in Georgia (U.S. state)