Cherokee County Chamber of Commerce says that the site is named Ball Ground because of a game of stickball played between the Cherokee and Creek "for the prize of a thousand square miles of land". After acquisition from the Cherokee in the 1830s, Ball Ground was originally settled as farmland and had few people living in the area. By 1847, the Ball Ground area had a post office, which was one of ten post offices within Cherokee County. In 1882, just before the town was established, Ball Ground had six homes and two country stores. Meetings were held in 1875 in various areas including Ball Ground to discuss the possibility of a railroad being built through Ball Ground and other nearby areas. In 1881 work began on a railroad to Ball Ground using chain gangs for labor and grading on the railroad's path was completed in Ball Ground that same year. The resulting track was part of the Marietta and North Georgia Railroad and was completed in 1882. Upon completion the terminus of the railroad was the newly constructed depot in Ball Ground. A town was built around the Ball Ground depot using surrounding land that was donated by thirteen nearby landowners for the express purpose of establishing a town. The deed of transfer to the railroad company noted that “The consideration moving each of us in the establishing of this town is the enhanced value to our lands within and adjacent to the said town, and the general benefit to the country, by which we shall be benefited.” The donated land was split into 200 lots and sold via an auction held in Ball Ground on April 18, 1883, along with other additional properties including a farm and a nearby mill. The next year in 1884, the town had approximately 300 residents. Incorporation as a town Ball Ground was incorporated as a town by town charter on September 27, 1883, by an act of the Georgia General Assembly. The town limits were set as "one half mile in every direction from the present railroad crossing on the Gilmer Ferry road; that it shall be known and distinguished as the town of Ball Ground." In January 1896 a judge approved the sale of the Marietta and North Georgia railroad to the Atlanta, Knoxville, and Northern railway due to nonpayment of loans by the former railroad. The property to be sold