The New Georgia Encyclopedia is supported by funding from A More Perfect Union, a special initiative of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
The Hancock County courthouse, in Sparta, was built 1881-83. The architectural style of the courthouse is called Second Empire; it was designed by the firm of Parkins and Bruce.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
The Millmore gristmill in Hancock County was the site of Georgia's 1786 peace treaty with the Creek Indians.
Image from Neal Wellons
Probably photographed at a Hancock County fair about 1898, this is believed to be the plow invented by the planter David Dickson. He also first used commercial fertilizer in Hancock County.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
han016.
The Sparta home of Linton Stephens, pictured in 1911. Stephens served as a Georgia state supreme court justice from 1859 to 1860 and was a delegate to the Georgia secession convention in 1861.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, # han001.
Glen Mary, an outstanding example of a Greek revival-style raised cottage, was built in 1848 about seven miles south of Sparta.
Image from C Smith
In 2014 the historic Hancock County courthouse, constructed from 1881-1883 was consumed by a fire that raged for three weeks. The flames reportedly became so hot that the 800-pound clock tower bell melted. An important civic center for residents, the courthouse was rebuild and recommissioned in 2016–an effort that resulted in $7.5 million in costs.
Courtesy of Brian Brown
The neoclassical revival-style Decatur County courthouse was built in Bainbridge, the county seat, in 1902.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
This bookmobile in Bainbridge, pictured ca. 1936-38, was reportedly the first one in Decatur County. "Decatur County Traveling Library" is painted on the door of the vehicle.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, # dec047.
A parade passes down Broad Street in Bainbridge for the Decatur County centennial celebration in 1923.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, # dec009.
The steamboat Getrude, laden with barrels of turpentine, passes a crowd on the banks of the Flint River near Bainbridge, 1910.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
dec060.
The Pike County Courthouse, designed in the Romanesque revival and colonial revival styles, was built in Zebulon in 1895. It is the county's third courthouse.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
Workers load logs for transport at a sawmill in Pike County, circa 1910. The timber industry continues to be an important economic activity in Pike County, which was created by the state legislature in 1822.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
pik001.
Tunnel Hill, a city in Whitfield County, was named for the 1,477-foot railroad tunnel exacavated through the Chetoogeta Ridge in 1848-49. The city served in 1864 as a winter camp for General Joseph E. Johnston's Confederate troops during the Civil War.
Photograph by Ethan Geer
The Whitfield County Courthouse, located in Dalton, was completed in 2006. Designed in the modern style, the structure incorporates the previous courthouse, which was built on the site in 1961.
Photograph by Jimmy Emerson, DVM
Crown Cotton Mill No. 2, located on Chattanooga Avenue in Dalton, is pictured in the late 1920s. Established in 1884, Crown Cotton Mill brought much-needed economic activity to Whitfield County and by 1916 employed 1,000 workers.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
wtf014b.
Mill houses line a street in Dalton, circa 1930. The carpet and textile industries in the city began in the late nineteenth century with the tufted bedspreads of Catherine Evans Whitener and by the 1940s had developed into a mechanized industry in Whitfield County.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
wtf013a.
The Wayne County Courthouse, designed in the Romanesque revival style, was completed in 1903. Located in Jesup, the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
Kayakers paddle down a stretch of the Altamaha River. The river played an integral role in the county's timber industry during the early nineteenth century as a means for transporting logs to the coast.
Courtesy of Explore Georgia, Photograph by Ralph Daniel.
Although the Darien economy is dependent on tourism, many locals continue to make a living through offshore fishing and shrimping.
Courtesy of Explore Georgia, Photograph by Ralph Daniel.
Hickory Hill, pictured circa 1910, was the home of noted senator and publisher Thomas E. Watson. Located in Thomson, the historic home, renovated to its 1920s appearance, is open to the public for tours by appointment.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
cob706.
The McDuffie County Courthouse, located in Thomson, was built in 1872. Major renovations to the courthouse, the county's first, were made in 1934 and 1970.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
Rock House, built in 1785 near the Quaker community of Wrightsborough in McDuffie County, is considered to be the oldest standing building in Georgia with its original architecture intact.
Image from Jimmy Emerson, DVM
The old courthouse in Wilkes County, pictured circa 1890, was constructed in 1817 and served until 1904.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
wlk142b.
The Wilkes County Courthouse, completed in 1904, is designed with a Richardsonian Romanesque influence. Located in Washington, the courthouse is the county's second.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
A wagon loaded with cotton, pictured circa 1900, stands on West Main Street in Washington, the seat of Wilkes County. Cotton was a major cash crop in the county throughout the nineteenth century and into the early twentieth century, ending with the boll weevil invasion.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #wlk011.
The Wilcox County Courthouse, built in Abbeville in 1903, is designed in the neoclassical revival style. It is the county's second courthouse.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
Workmen in Wilcox County, pictured circa 1915, stand on white-oak barrel staves, which were shipped overseas for use in whiskey barrels.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
wlc005.
General Joseph Wheeler, born near Augusta, commanded U.S. volunteers in Cuba during the Spanish-American War. Wheeler also served during the Civil War and the Philippine Insurrection, and authored several books on military and civil subjects. Wheeler County, in central Georgia, is named in his honor.
From The Conflict with Spain and Conquest of the Philippines, by H. F. Keenan
The Wheeler County Courthouse, built in Alamo in 1917, is designed in the neoclassical revival style. Restored in 1961, it is the county's second official courthouse.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
Passengers pose for a photograph, circa 1901, at Gallemore, a community in Twiggs County located between Macon and Danville. Railroad construction played a key role in the settlement patterns of Twiggs County in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
bib050.
The Twiggs County Courthouse, located in Jeffersonville, was completed in 1904. Designed in the Romanesque revival style, the courthouse was renovated in 1979 and expanded between 1996 and 2003.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
The Byron depot has been restored and now serves as a museum housing photographs and other memorabilia of the city's history.
Harvesting peaches in Peach County, the self-proclaimed "Peach Capital of the World."
Courtesy of Explore Georgia, Photograph by Andrew Thomas Lee.
Queen Elizabeth Joyner rides a float from Americus–Sumter County in the Peach Parade, held during Fort Valley's Peach Blossom Festival in the mid-1920s. Fort Valley is the seat of Peach County, the self-proclaimed "Peach Capital of the World."
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
sum095.
The Peach County Courthouse, built in 1936, was designed in the colonial revival style. The courthouse, located in Fort Valley, was expanded in 1970 and again in the 1990s.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
Fort Valley State University, located in Peach County, is one of ten historically Black colleges and universities in the state. Since the advent of the HOPE scholarship program in 1993, enrollment by Georgia students at historically Black schools in other states has decreased.
Built in 1915, the Lincoln County Courthouse is designed in the neoclassical revival style. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the courthouse is the third to be built in Lincolnton, the county seat.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
Mulberry Christian Methodist Episcopal Church was built in 1873 and offered church services and a school to Black residents of Lincolnton, the seat of Lincoln County. A congregation of approximately 200 members continues to meet in the church.
Courtesy of Lincolnton-Lincoln County Chamber of Commerce
The Treutlen County Courthouse, built in Soperton in 1920, is designed in the neoclassical revival style. The county's original courthouse, it was renovated in 1976 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.
Photograph by Jimmy Emerson, DVM
The Telfair County Courthouse, built in 1934, is designed in the colonial revival style. It is the second courthouse to be built in McRae, which became the county seat in 1871. At least two other courthouses were built during the nineteenth century in Telfair County's first seat, Jacksonville.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
The McLeod Hotel, pictured circa 1890, was located in Lumber City, which boasted the largest sawmill in the South at the time of its incorporation in 1889. Today Lumber City is one of six incorporated cities in Telfair County.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
tel003.
A Register and Glennville train, pictured in 1906, stops at the depot in Glennville, today the largest city in Tattnall County. The R&G Railroad was renamed the East Georgia Railway in 1914.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
tat017.
The Tattnall County Courthouse, built in Reidsville in 1902, was most recently renovated in 1991. Designed with a Second Empire influence, the courthouse is the county's third.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
Workers, pictured circa 1910, pose at the sawmill of Frank Southwell near Mendes, in Tattnall County. The largely agricultural economy of the county in the nineteenth century supported a number of mills, many of which were built by 1849.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
tat054.
Gordonia-Alatamaha State Park, located in Tattnall County, is named for the endangered Gordonia bay tree, a relative of the rare Franklin tree discovered in 1765 by John and William Bartram. The park offers facilities for fishing, boating, and camping, as well as an eighteen-hole golf course.
Courtesy of Explore Georgia, Photograph by Ralph Daniel.
The Georgia Historical Commission gained national recognition as a pioneer in state historic preservation. The commission erected some 1,800 historical markers. This marker designates the site of the Cedar Creek Primitive Baptist Church, established in 1813 in Tattnall County.
Courtesy of Georgia Info, Digital Library of Georgia.
Constructed in 1825, the original Fayette County Courthouse, pictured in the late 1880s, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the oldest courthouse in Georgia. The clock tower was added to the structure in 1888.
Courtesy of Fayette County Historical Society
Fayette County's first courthouse (in use from 1825 until 1965) is the oldest county courthouse in the State of Georgia. Today the building houses the Fayette County Chamber of Commerce and the Fayette County Development Authority.
Image from Jimmy Emerson, DVM
The Holliday-Dorsey-Fife House in Fayetteville, designed in the Greek revival style, was built in 1855 by John Stiles Holliday, the uncle of "Doc" Holliday. The city bought the home in 1999, and following renovations, the Holliday-Dorsey-Fife House Museum opened to the public in 2003.
Image from Cdrcody
The Old Fayette County courthouse in 2015. Today, this building is used as office space for several organizations, including the Fayette County Development Authority. The Fayette County Superior Court is located at One Center Drive in Fayetteville.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
Lula Falls and Lula Lake, in Walker County near Lookout Mountain, are protected by the Lula Lake Land Trust. More than 4,000 acres, which lie within the Rock Creek watershed, are owned by the trust.
Image from Rock/Creek
Lee and Gordon's Mills, pictured between 1900 and 1915, was a saw- and gristmill built during the 1830s in Walker County. The mill continued to operate until 1967, and during the 1990s it was restored as a Civil War-era museum.
Courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
The Walker County Courthouse in LaFayette, completed in 1919, was designed in the Beaux-Arts classical and Italian Renaissance revival styles. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
The Warren County Courthouse, built in 1910 and renovated in 2000, is located in Warrenton and designed in the neoclassical revival style. Added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980, the courthouse is the county's third.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
Visitors gather in 1908 outside the Beall Springs Hotel, a popular resort destination in Warren County during the early twentieth century. Built around a mineral springs, the town of Beall Springs developed after the state acquired the springs and surrounding land in 1773.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, # wrr001.
The Roberts-McGregor House in Warrenton, the seat of Warren County, was a two-story stuccoed brick home built in 1835. The home was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979 and was later demolished.
Courtesy of Owens Library, School of Environment and Design, University of Georgia, Hubert B. Owens Collection, #Box 45.
The Turner County Courthouse, built in 1907, is the only recorded courthouse in the county's history. Located in Ashburn, it is designed in the neoclassical revival style.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
The home of J. S. Shingler, pictured in 1918, is located in the historic Shingler Heights neighborhood of Ashburn, the seat of Turner County.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, # tur007.
The Towns County Courthouse, built in 1964, is designed in the modern style. Located in Hiawassee, it is the county's third courthouse.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
Lake Chatuge, a 7,050-acre reservoir, was created when the Tennessee Valley Authority dammed the Hiwassee River in 1941. It is located in Towns County, in the north Georgia mountains.
Courtesy of Explore Georgia, Photograph by Ralph Daniel.
The Taliaferro County Courthouse, built in 1902, is designed in the High Victorian style. Added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980, it is the county's second courthouse.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
Liberty Hall, the mansion of Georgia governor Alexander Stephens, forms the centerpiece of the A. H. Stephens Historic Park in Taliaferro County. The interior of the home, which was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970, is open to the public.
Courtesy of Explore Georgia, Photograph by Ralph Daniel.
The A. H. Stephens Historic Park, in Crawfordville, is part of the Georgia state park system. The park includes Alexander Stephens's restored home, Liberty Hall, as well a museum containing Civil War artifacts.
Courtesy of Georgia Department of Natural Resources, Photograph from Georgia State Parks.
Liberty Hall in Taliaferro County, home of Alexander H. Stephens, is pictured in 1936.
Courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Historic American Buildings Survey, #HABS GA,133-CRAWV,1--2.
Woody Lake is located near the rural community of Suches in Union County, which continues to operate the Woody Gap School, one of the few remaining rural schools in the state to survive several rounds of consolidation.
Image from John Getchel
The Union County Courthouse, located in Blairsville, was built in 1978 as an annex to the Union County Office Building, which was constructed in 1976. The county's fourth courthouse, it is designed in the modern style.
Photograph by John Trainor
Blood Mountain, with an altitude of 4,458 feet, is the highest point along the Georgia section of the Appalachian Trail. It is located in Union County.
Image from Lily S
Visitors to Brasstown Bald, the highest elevation in Georgia, can view four states. The mountain is partly in Union County and partly in Towns County.
Courtesy of Explore Georgia, Photograph by Ralph Daniel.
The Old Union County Courthouse, constructed in 1899, served as the county's courthouse until 1971. The building, which today houses the Union County Historical Society, was renovated by local volunteers and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.
Image from Jimmy Emerson, DVM
The Toombs County Courthouse, built in Lyons in 1964, is designed in the modern style.
Photograph by OZinOH
C. E. Adams's ice plant, pictured in the 1940s, was located in Vidalia, a community in Toombs County. During the years of World War II (1941-45), a number of new businesses sprang up in Vidalia to support a newly built U.S. Army Air Force field.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #tom002.
Vidalia onions were first cultivated by Mose Coleman, a farmer in Toombs County, during the 1930s and today represent one of the county's most important commodities. The crop is named for the community of Vidalia, which is located in Toombs County and known as the "Sweet Onion Capital of the World."
Image from UGA CAES/Extension
Vidalia onions grow in Toombs County, one of the counties served by an extension office of the Small Farmer Outreach Training and Technical Assistance Project of Fort Valley State University.
Courtesy of Explore Georgia, Photograph by Ralph Daniel.
The Blackshear railroad depot in Pierce County, added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2000, houses the chamber of commerce as well as the county's Heritage Museum and genealogical library. The depot was built in 1902.
Courtesy of John Walker Guss and Pierce County Historical and Genealogical Society, Inc.
The Pierce County Courthouse, located in Blackshear, was constructed in 1902 and remodeled in 1970. Designed in the neoclassical revival style, the courthouse is the county's third. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
A warehouse in Pierce County stores bales of cotton, one of the major crops grown in the county during the nineteenth century. The boll weevil infestation of the 1920s, however, caused many Pierce County farmers to switch from cotton to tobacco cultivation.
Courtesy of John Walker Guss and Pierce County Historical and Genealogical Society, Inc.
The Satilla River, pictured near Blackshear, the seat of Pierce County, circa 1925.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, # prc012.
Brewton-Parker College is a four-year institution affiliated with the Georgia Baptist Convention. Built in 1904, the same year as the school's founding, Gates Hall, pictured, is the only original building still standing on the college's main campus, which is located in Mount Vernon.
Courtesy of Terry Gaston, Brewton-Parker College
Richard Montgomery, pictured in an engraving made around 1777, was a brigadier general in the Continental Army who was killed in Quebec in 1775. Montgomery County, in east central Georgia, is named in his honor.
Courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
The Montgomery County Courthouse, designed in the neoclassical revival style, was built in 1907. Located in Mount Vernon, the courthouse was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. Renovations to the building were completed in 1992.
Photograph by OZinOH
The East and West Railroad, built between Cartersville and Cedartown around 1900, is one of several railroads that came to Polk County in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
plk073-84.
The Polk County Courthouse, designed in the stripped classical style, was built in Cedartown in 1951. It is the county's third courthouse.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
A crowd is gathered for a 1946 Eugene Talmadge political rally in Cedartown, Polk County.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
plk024-84.
Hiram Colored School in Paulding County was built by the Rural School Building Program of the Julius Rosenwald Fund in 1930. The Rosenwald schools, which offered an education to African American students, were built throughout the South from 1912 to 1932.
Jacob Searight Freeman, pictured circa 1927, was a cotton farmer in Paulding County. Agriculture has played an integral role in the county's economy since the nineteenth century.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
pld015-95.
The Paulding County Courthouse, located in Dallas, was built in 1892 and is designed in the Queen Anne style. The structure was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980, and a three-story annex was added in 1990. It is the county's third courthouse.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
The students of Oak Hill School, a one-room school in Paulding County, gather with their teacher, Ella Louise Babb, for a photograph in 1904. Similar schools opened around the county early in the twentieth century.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
pld004.
A railroad depot is pictured in Ideal, in Macon County.
Courtesy of Steve Storey
The Macon County Courthouse in Oglethorpe, built in 1894, is an example of the Romanesque revival style. It is the county's third courthouse, and the second to be built in Oglethorpe, which became the county seat in 1856. The first seat of Macon County was Lanier.
Courtesy of Don Bowman
