The region where Atlanta and its suburbs were built was originally Creek and Cherokee Native American territory. In 1813, the Creeks, who had been recruited by the British to assist them in the War of 1812, attacked and burned Fort Mims in southwestern Alabama. The conflict broadened and became known as the Creek War. In response, the United States built a string of forts along the Ocmulgee and Chattahoochee Rivers, including Fort Daniel on top of Hog Mountain near present-day Dacula, Georgia, and Fort Gilmer. Fort Gilmer was situated next to an important Indian site called Standing Peachtree, named after a large tree which is believed to have been a pine tree (the name referred to the pitch or sap that flowed from it). The word "pitch" was misunderstood for "peach," thus the site's name. The site traditionally marked a Native American meeting place at the boundary between Creek and Cherokee lands, at the point where Peachtree Creek flows into the Chattahoochee. The fort was soon renamed Fort Peachtree. A road was built linking Fort Peachtree and Fort Daniel following the route of existing trails.
The Creek land in the eastern part of the metro area (including Decatur) was opened to white settlement in 1823. In 1835, some leaders of the Cherokee Nation ceded their territory to the United States without the consention of the majority of the Cherokee people in exchange for land out west under the Treaty of New Echota, an act that led to the Trail of Tears.
In 1836 the Georgia General Assembly voted to build the Western and Atlantic Railroad to provide a trade route to the Midwest. The initial route was to run from Chattanooga to a spot called simply "Terminus," located somewhere east of the Chattahoochee River, which would eventually be linked to the Georgia Railroad from Augusta and the Macon and Western, which ran from Macon to Savannah.
According to the Georgia Secretary of State, an experienced army engineer, Colonel Stephen Harriman Long, was chosen to recommend the location of the terminus. He surveyed various possible routes, then drove a stake near Five Points in modern Atlanta. Although the “zero milepost” marker has been moved repeatedly, its current location in Underground Atlanta is very close to Long's original choice.
A number of sites were proposed or actually designated as the Terminus, and the history is not completely clear. In 1837, work began to build it near Hog Mountain near present-day Dacula, Georgia, where Fort Daniel was located, but the site was soon abandoned because there were too many creeks, valleys, and steep gradients. It was moved to Montgomery's Ferry near Fort Peachtree, for a savings of $18,000 per mile. Some historians claim that Decatur, a town founded in 1823 to the east of current Atlanta, was proposed as the Terminus, but declined due to worries about noise and crime.
Several months later in 1837, the legislature finally established the zero-mile marker for the Terminus at a point near the present-day Georgia World Congress Center, because the area was relatively flat and would better allow for turnarounds.(The zero-mile marker was later moved a short distance east, and today sits underneath Five Points, which was built on iron pilings above the railroad.) It was nicknamed Thrasherville after John Thrasher, who built homes and a general store there.
The area around Atlanta, later to become a part of the city, also began to be developed. A well-marked Indian trail, known as the Peachtree Trail, had long run from the area of present-day Suwanee to the site of Standing Peachtree. To the south, in the present-day Campbelltown Road area, the Owl Rock Methodist Church was founded in 1828 by Richmond Barge and other members of the Mutual Rights faction. In 1838, Henry Irby started a tavern and grocery on a spur of the road, and the paths leading to his establishment became Paces Ferry Road and Roswell Road. Two years later, the head of a buck was set on a pole in front of the tavern, and the region came to be called Buck's Head, and then Buckhead.
By 1842, the settlement at the Terminus had six buildings and 30 residents. When a two-story depot building was built, the residents asked that the settlement be named "Lumpkin," after Wilson Lumpkin, the Governor of Georgia. He asked them to name it after his daughter, instead, and Terminus became Marthasville. Just three years later, the Chief Engineer of the Georgia Railroad, (J. Edgar Thomson) suggested that it be renamed to "Atlantica-Pacifica," which was quickly shortened to "Atlanta." The residents approved—apparently undaunted by the fact that not a single train had yet visited—and the town was eventually incorporated as "Atlanta" in 1847.
The first Georgia Railroad freight and passenger trains arrived in 1845. In 1846, a third railroad,the Macon & Western, completed tracks to Terminus, connecting the little settlement with Macon and Savannah. The town then began to boom. In 1847, two hotels were built and two newspapers were published. The population exploded to 2,500 citizens. In 1848, the first mayor was elected, the first homicide occurred and the first jail was built. A new city council approved the building of wooden sidewalks, banned business on Sundays, and appointed a town marshal. A new railroad depot designed by Edward A. Vincent was completed in 1853. That year, Vincent also delivered Atlanta's first official map to the city council.
By 1854-55 another railroad had connected Atlanta to Chattanooga. The town had grown to 6,000 residents and had a bank, a daily newspaper, a factory to build freight cars, a new brick depot, property taxes, a gasworks, gas streetlights, a theater, a medical college, and juvenile delinquency.