Back in the days of the Civil War and for some years after, the leading town in East Polk County was little Van Wert which was settled by Welsh miners in 1838. They worked in the slate and rock quarries of the area.

When the first railway was being built, Van Wert was immediately thought of as the logical place for the Southern Railway depot to be built. However, a wealthy landowner, Colonel Seaborn Jones, offered land and money for a station to be built one mile west of Van Wert, in an area that became Rockmart, which was incorporated in 1872.