Early County, Georgia Genealogy and History - Presented by Genealogy Trails History Group

EARLY.

The other of these counties into which all of southern Georgia was divided in 1818 was called Early in honor of Governor Early. It included a large part of southwestern Georgia, and, though a number of other counties have been carved from it, it is still a large county.

Blakely was made the county site in 1826.

The first settlers were, according to White: Isham Sheffield, Arthur Sheffield, West Sheffield, James Bush, John Hays, Jos. Grinsley, Richard Spain, F?k Porter, Jos. Boles, Jno. Rae, Abner Jones, Nathaniel Weaver, James Jones, S. V. Wilson, Jno. Dill, Alex Watson, James Carr, Jno. Tilley, Wm. Hendricks, John Floyd, D. Roberts, Andrew Bird, B. Collier, J. Fowler, Martin Wood, Geo. Mercier, W. Dixon, A. Hayes, James Brantley, and E. H. Hayes.

These first settlers in Early were scattered over a wide area, which is now in several counties. The county of Early proper was slowly settled.

There was along the banks of the Chattahoochee and its tributary creeks a great deal of rich cotton land of the rotten limestone formation, with forests of oak and hickory, but it was sickly and hard to open.
The larger part of the county was pine woods, and it was settled by plain, poor people who raised cattle, but to these fine oak and hickory lands some eastern planters, as soon as the Indians were finally removed, came with many slaves. They were people of culture and wealth, and settled large plantations and lived in great elegance. Their homes were not far from the Chattahoochee river, and they had all the luxuries of the cities brought from Columbus and Apalachicola by the steamers which came weekly.
The larger part of the population, however, was the same class of pine woods people we have seen elsewhere. Immigrants came from the eastern counties in Georgia and from South Carolina and North Carolina. The pine lands of Early were more productive than the lands further east and there was more extensive planting.

In the first days of the county the people had access to the outer world by the boats which went up and down the Chattahoochee.

In 1850 there were as many negroes as whites in the county, but the negroes were almost entirely confined to one section of it, to the plantations on the river or on the creeks flowing into it. Some up-country people had their plantations in this county and spent their winters on them, but their homes were far away, but some of the wealthiest of the people lived in the county all the year round.

The educational advantages of the people were not good. The wealthy had their private teachers and their children were taught at home until they were old enough to go from home to school. They were educated in the best schools of the South, and when they returned to their isolated homes they brought with them as visitors their friends and kinspeople and had a society of their own. In the summer time and in the malarial season they sought the up-country or their piny woods retreat.

The lands on the river and the creeks were very fertile, and a bale of cotton per acre was often produced. The churches were not many and were far apart, and for many years the ministers were poorly supported and were of inferior grade. After the war railroads were made, and the changes brought about were very marked in church and school matters.

The wealthy planter whose great plantation was on the river had put all his earnings into young negroes whom he had brought up, and he had no money laid away. When his negroes were freed the bulk of his estate was gone. The plantation negroes were not willing to remain longer in the swamps, and left the plantation for the towns and for their old homes in the up-country and Carolina. The old planter found himself unable to cope with his difficulties, and abandoned his plantation and sought another home, or else, trying to recruit his shattered fortune, he mortgaged his land, bought mules and supplies on a credit, and when disaster to his crop came, as it did, he found himself a bankrupt.

In the picture of the southwest Georgia planting country, which is found in the future chapters, the condition of things in that part of Early in which the planters made their homes is given.

Villages, Hamlets and Towns

Hilton Station, a village of Early county, is located on the Central of Georgia railroad, about five miles northeast of Columbia, Ala., and in 1900 reported a population of 104. It has a money order postoffice, with free rural delivery, express and telegraph offices and stores, and is a shipping center for the surrounding country.
(Source: Georgia Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions, and Persons, VOL II, by Candler & Evans, Publ. 1906. Transcribed by Kim Mohler)

Kestler, a town in the eastern part of Early county, was incorporated by act of the legislature on Dec. 6, 1900. According to the census of that year it had a population of 110. It is on the Georgia, Florida & Alabama railroad, has a money order postoffice, some mercantile interests, and does considerable shipping.
(Source: Georgia Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions, and Persons, VOL II, by Candler & Evans, Publ. 1906. Transcribed by Tracy McAllister)

Killarney, a post-hamlet in the southern part of Early county, is not far from the Miller county line. Jakin, on the Atlantic Coast Line, is the nearest railroad station.
(Source: Georgia Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions, and Persons, VOL II, by Candler & Evans, Publ. 1906. Transcribed by Tracy McAllister)