The area, now called Cumming, was inhabited earlier by Cherokee tribes, who are thought to have arrived in the mid-18th century.

The treaty stated that the Cherokee Nation must move to the Indian Territory, west of the Mississippi River.

Frederick Cumming, a professor of Jacob Scudder, a resident of the area since 1815 who owned land in present-day downtown.

[7][8] In 1912, Governor Joseph M. Brown sent four companies of state militia to Cumming to prevent riots after two reported attacks of young white women, allegedly by black men.

A suspect in the second assault, in which the victim was also raped and later died, was dragged from the Cumming county jail and lynched.

The governor then declared martial law, but the effort did little to stop a month-long barrage of attacks by night riders on the black citizens.

[14][better source needed] Racial tensions were strained again in 1987 when a group of black people were assaulted while camping at a park on Lake Lanier.

As a result of this, a local businessman[note 1] decided to hold a "Peace March" the following week.

Civil rights leader Reverend Hosea Williams joined the local businessman in a march along Bethelview and Castleberry Road in south Forsyth County into the City of Cumming where they were assaulted by whites.

She formed a town hall meeting where one audience member said: I'm afraid of [blacks] coming to Forsyth County.

Today, the city is experiencing new growth and bears little resemblance to the small rural town it was mere decades ago.

[8] The lake, a popular spot for boaters, has generated income from tourists for Cumming as well as provides a source of drinking water.

The town of Cumming's charter was revised on December 22, 1845, resulting in new councilmen William F. Foster, Arthur Irwin, Major J. Lewis, Henry L. Sims, and Noah Strong.

[21] House Bill 334 was enacted on October 10, 1885, giving Cumming a mayor and five-person city council.