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Early 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
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)

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