The city of Roswell was founded in 1839 by Roswell King, who moved to the area in 1836. Roswell King established the Roswell Manufacturing Company and built a factory to harness the power of local rivers to manufacture textiles. Roswell officially became a city on February 16, 1854. In 1829, Roswell King, a successful businessman, landowner, and slave owner from Darien, Georgia, went to the beautiful mountainous region of North Georgia to investigate the prospects for gold mining. Located 20 miles from downtown Atlanta, Roswell is Georgia's ninth-largest city, with a population of nearly 100,000. In 1830, during a trip to North Georgia, Roswell King passed through the area of what is now Roswell and saw the enormous possibilities of building a cotton mill along Vickery Creek.
Towards the mid-1830s, King rebuilt a factory that would soon become the largest in North Georgia: Roswell Mill. Because Roswell residents wanted local government, they submitted a city charter for membership in the Georgia General Assembly. While Roswell is one of the largest cities in the state, it's consistently ranked as one of the best places to live in Georgia.
