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DeKalb County, Georgia History
The Story of Georgia and the Georgia People 1732 to 1860
by George Gillman Smith, D.D.
Originally published c. 1901
Submitted by K. Torp, ©2007
DEKALB.
There is such a general resemblance between the up-country counties which adjoin each other that it is difficult
to describe one without describing the other. Dekalb, which was laid out in 1822 from Henry and Fayette, presents
almost the same features as we have found in those counties. It was laid out in 1822, and had over ten thousand
people in it in 1830. Lands were cheap, and the homeless people in Georgia and other States were many and they
crowded into these hills.
As a general thing the lands were very poor and cheap, but along the creeks and brooks there were some fertile
tracts, and along the South river some first quality lands. The village of Decatur was an important little town,
inhabited by substantial people almost from its first settlement. Fulton county was made from Dekalb, and the size
of the county was lessened and the population much reduced.
The first settlers in Dekalb, some of whom lived in what is now Fulton, were, according to White: Wm. Jackson,
James Montgomery, Jno. R. Brock, Wm. Ezzard, Wm. Hill, Stephen Mays, Reuben Cone, J. M. Smith, Writ David, Mason
Shewmake, John Simpson, Amos Towers, Jno. W. Fowler, Edward Jones, Andrew Johnson, Jno. Turner, I. P. Carr, James
W. Reeves, William Murphy, George Clifton, James Jones, Jesse Lane, Lachlan Johnson, William Terrell and George
Brooks.
Stone mountain, one of the wonders of Georgia, an immense pile of solid granite, is in this county. It is three
thousand feet high and six or seven miles in circumference, and from its summit can be secured the most entrancing
view of all the country round for sixty miles. The mountain is of granite, a peculiarly valuable kind suited for
paving and building, and has greatly enriched those who own it.
The growth of Atlanta and its proximity to Dekalb county have caused a number of villages to spring up in this
county. Kirkwood, Clarkston, Stone Mountain, Lithonia and Ingleside are all flourishing villages, while Decatur
has reached the proportions of quite a city.
Dekalb has been the home of many excellent people who have done the State good service. The Rev. John S. Wilson
came to it a young man, and never left it, except to remove a few miles to Atlanta, till his death in old age.
He was a teacher and a minister of the Presbyterian church. He was a man of great worth and of great influence.
Charles Murphy, long a member of Congress and a law yer of great ability and integrity; lived in Decatur for many
years, and died there. James M. Calhoun, a sterling Whig, a worthy and gifted lawyer, lived here for many years.
William Ezzard, once judge of the circuit court, a pure and upright man, and Dr. Calhoun, a physician of the old
school, were among the prominent citizens of the little village in its early life.
Gov. A. H. Colquitt, famous as a soldier, statesman and a Christian, lived and died in this county.
Among its present citizens are Colonel Scott, who has, at his own expense, built the Agnes Scott Female Institute,
a Presbyterian school; Colonel M. A. Candler, who has represented his district in Congress; General J. B. Gordon,
famous as a soldier and a statesman and senator. The Orphans Home of the North Georgia Conference is located near
Decatur. There are over one hundred children who are being cared for by the North Georgia Conference. It is now
under the care of the Rev. Howard L. Crumley, as agent, who has done much for it. It was the first orphanage of
the Methodists, and its founder was the great Dr. Jesse Boring, who, in his old age, aroused the church to a sense
of her duty to her orphans, and caused, by his earnest pleadings, at least ten homes to be erected in the various
conferences.
©2007
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