History

The Battle of Ruff’s Mill, July 4th, 1864

July the 4th is a special day for our country, and also for the Concord Covered Bridge Historic District. This is when the Battle of Ruff’s Mill was fought along Concord Road during Johnston’s retreat towards Atlanta. After Sherman’s failed…
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The Historic District Map

The Concord Covered Bridge Historic District was created by Cobb County in 1986, the county’s first historic district. The focal point of the district is the Concord Covered Bridge. There are many additional historic structures dating back to the mid-1800s…
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The Covered Bridge

The Concord Covered Bridge is the focal point of the surrounding Historic District.It is famous as the only covered bridge remaining in Cobb County, still open to automobile traffic, and traffic counts show it as the busiest covered bridge in…
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Concord Woolen Mills

Since the early 1800s, people have used the enormous water power of the Nickajack creek to power mills in the community. Grist mills, saw mills, cotton mills, woolen mills. In the area around the Covered Bridge Historic District, a mill-based…
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Ruff’s Grist Mill

The grist mill in front of the miller’s house dates to the 1850s. It had an overshot water wheel at its north side, fed by a mill race carrying water from the dam upstream from the covered bridge. Because of…
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John Gann House

Built in the 1840s by State Senator John Gann on land awarded in the Gold Land Lottery of 1832, this farm house survived the Battle of Ruff’s Mill because a “Yankee General saw the Masonic flag flying from an upstairs…
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Henry Clay Ruff House

The house on the northeast side of the covered bridge is believed to date to the beginning of the grist mill. Earliest deed of record is May 17, 1856. As the residence of the first grist miller, Henry Ruff, the…
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John W. Rice House

Although a house may have sat on the northwest hill beside the covered bridge, the present house was built by John W. Rice in 1907. He purchased the mill interest from his father, Z. A. Rice. The Rice House is…
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Martin Luker Ruff House

Martin L Ruff, along with Robert Daniel, moved to this area in the 1840s to establish several mill works along Nickajack Creek. No photographs have been found of the original house, but it is believed to date from the 1850s….
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