Jones County Georgia thru the years  GAGenWeb Jones County Page
 
Jones County Georgia
Thru The Years
1837
1854
1860
1890

1837
Jones County is bounded by Jasper and a part of Putnam, on the N., by Baldwin on the E., by Twiggs and a corner of Wilkinson on the S., and by the Ocmulgee and Bibb on the W. Population, 16, 498. Academy funds received, $1,051.67. Poor School do., $801.86. Three incorporated Academies in the county; but wo have ceased operations. Clinton is the capital.
  Pubic Place. Blountsville, Freeman's store, and Fortville.
Source: A Gazetteer of the State of Georgia: Embracing a Particular Description of the Counties, Towns, Villages, Rivers, &c., and Whatsoever is Usual in Geographies, and Minute Statistical Works, Together with a New Map of the State. By Adiel Sherwood
Edition: 3. Published by Printed by P. Force, 1837


1854
Laid out in 1807; part added from Putnam 1810; part to Bibb, 1822. Length, 21 m.; breadth, 18 m.; area square miles, 378.
  The chief river is the Ocmulgee.
   The face of the county is hilly. The soil, though much worn, is productive.
  Clinton is the county town distant from Milledgeville 22 miles.
  Blountsville, a small place is 10 miles from Clinton.
   Griswold's Cotton Gin Factory is situated in Griswoldville. Machinery moved by steam. Yearly average sales, 900 gins, worth not less than $40,000; saws worth about $80,000; 70,000 pounds of castings, mostly of iron, used per annum; 50,000 pounds of wrought iron, 40,000 pounds gin-saw cast steel, and 200,000 feet of lumber. Annual profits of business, $20,000. Connected with this establishment are two saws, cutting 600,000 feet of lumber pr annum, besides wagon, smiths' shops. &c. Whole number of hands employed, 80.
   The most common diseases are fever and pneumonia.
  Extract from the Census of 1850. White males, 1,972; white females, 1927; free coloured males, 17; free coloured females, 29. Total free population, 3,945; slaves, 6,279. Deaths, 85. Farms, 405; manufacturing establishments, 15. Value of real estate, $1,373,625; value of personal estate, $3,525,464.
  Among the first settlers were, Captain Jonathan Parish, Peter Clower, Henry Low, Wm. Williams, Wilkinson Jackson, Jeremiah Dumas, Thomas White, Jeremiah Peason, Major Humphries, James and High Comer, Roger McCarthy, Allen Greene, Benjamin Tarver, Bailey Stewart, James Anthony, George Harper, John Chapell, Jesse M. Pope, Henry Pope, John Bayne, Stephen Kirk, Wm. Carbanus, P. A. Lews, James Jones, Wm. Jones, Robert Hutchings, James Grey.
  Mr. Benjamin Reynolds died in this county, aged seventy-three years. He was a native of Caroline County, Virginia. At the breaking out of the Revolutionary War, he was too young to enter the service. As soon as his age would admit, he, together with the patriotic citizens of the Revolution took up arms, and entered the service of his country. At the end of the war he removed to South Carolina into a neighborhood distinguished for their loyalty to the British crown. Mr. Reynolds, from his zealous devotion to the cause of liberty, encountered the most violent persecution from his misguided associates. After the purchase of the land on which Jones County is included, he removed thither, being one of its earliest settlers.
  John Lamar, Esq., died in this county. As a soldier of the Revolution, he was not only brave to a fault, but his services were of long continuance, and his sufferings excessive. Very shortly after entering the army, he was deputed with others to the performance of a perilous duty, in which he was deserted by his companions, and left to execute the order alone, which he did to the admiration and astonishment of all. For this act of intrepidity and fidelity, the Government tendered him a Lieutenant's commission in the regular forces, which, however, he modestly declined, on the ground that he was too young and inexperienced to assume the responsibilities of the station, being at this time only in his seventeenth year. He served under General Marion and Pickens, attached generally to the battalion of the latter; was at the battle of the Eutaw, Cowpens, siege of Augusta, and in several other engagements; once taken as a prisoner, but made his escape from the camp of Lord Cornwallis, rescuing at the same time one of his cousins' was twice wounded during the war by the British, and once by the Indians, after his removal to Georgia.
  Many of the citizens of this section of the State have done honour to it by their virtues and talents.
  Dr. Hamilton, now of Cass, was a practitioner of medicine in this county for many years, and had a high reputation.
  Colonel Robert Hardeman is well known as a courteous gentleman and eminent lawyer.

Historical Collections of Georgia: Containing the Most Interesting Facts, Traditions, Biographical Sketches, Anecdotes, Etc., Relating to Its History and Antiquities, from Its First Settlement to the Present Time ; Compiled from Original Records and Official Documents ; Illustrated by Nearly One ...By George White, Published by Pudney & Russell, 1855



1860
  Jones County had a few settlers in 1804, though not laid out till 1807. Its soil, the real mulatto land, is very rich in its virgin state, but is exhausted by cultivation. Edmund Talbot, a cousin of Hon. Matthew Talbot, governor ex officio after Gov. Rabun's death, began to preach in this county in 1809, and continued till about 1830, when he removed to Henry county, Alabama, where he died in 1853, eighty-six years old.
  Henry Hooten preached here many years.
 John and Benjamin Milner, brothers, both announced the glad tidings in Jones.
  Fall creek is in the west. Walnut creek falls into Ocmulgee just below Macon. Commissioners is in southeast part, on which is a woollen factory.
  Clinton is the capital, named after Gov. De Witt Clinton, a distinguished statesman of New York, and the chief promoter of its great western canal. In 1836 it contained 56 dwellings, 10 stores, 5 lawyers, 3 doctors, 8 mechanic shops. 22 miles west Milledgeville, 25 east Forysth, 28 Marion, 12 Macon, 28 Irwinton, 55 Hartford, 28 S. S. W. Eatonton. Methodist and Baptist house of worship, the latter built in 1836 by the efforts and contributions, in a  great part, of James Locket. It has had good schools; some seven or eight post-offices.
  Blountsville is a post village on the Eatonton road, 10 miles N. E. Court-house, 16½ W. Milledgeville.
  Fortville is E. Etheridge also N. E., near Blountsville.
 Grab-All is in the N. W. corner.
 Tranquilla is north.
 Griswold is a post village, 9 miles E. Macon, on south line of the county, a manufactory for cotton gins, which are made here by the thousand. It is a pretty village, occupied chiefly by Mr. Griswold and his workmen, in the gin-making business. The first depot from Macon on Central Railroad.
  Woollen Factory is south-east, near Wallace post-office.
  This has been one of the most fertile counties in the State; the real chocolate soil.
 James Jones, of Savannah, known as Chatham Jemmy because there were several distinguished men named Jones, was born in Chatham county. He was frequently in our Legislate, and Member of Congress 1799-1801. Died in Washington city. Col. Troup informed the author in regard to the name, and he was in the Legislature when it was affixed to this county.

Source: A gazetteer of Georgia: containing a particular description of the state, its resources, counties, towns, villages, and whatever is usual in statistical works. By Adiel Sherwood. Edition: 4. Published by S. Boykin, 1860



1890
Jones county was laid out in 1807 and named for James Jones, of Chatham county; is bounded north by Jasper, east by Baldwin, south by Bibb, and west by Monroe. Clinton is the county seat, with other post-offices: Blountville, Bradley, Cardville, Cornucopia, Glovers, Gray, Griswoldville, Haddock Station, James, Morton, Pippin, Plenitude, Round Oak, Robertsville, Slocum, Wayside - none of importance. The fine dark mulatto lands were once considered among the best in the State and could, by a proper system of cultivation, be restored. Even before the railroads no county in the State had a better or more intelligent and thrifty population, lands being worked by slave labor owned by wealthy planters.
  Population in 1890, 12,709; school fund, $5,005.75; county tax, 5½ mills; acres of improved land, 235,419; average value per acre, $3.34; city property, $24,659; gas and electric lights, $157; money, etc., $72,172; merchandise, $21,920; stocks and bonds, $2,100; household, furniture, $50,828; horses, mules, etc, $163,025; plantation and mechanical tools, $32,657; watches, jewelry, etc., $4,906; real estate, $813, 965; personal estate, $363,664. Returns of colored taxpayers-number of acres of land, 9,715; value, $29,560; city property, $2,119; merchandise, $300; household furniture, $9,402; horses, mules, etc, $35,012; plantation and mechanical tools, $5,823. The land, with proper culture, will produce per acre: corn, 15 to 20 bushels; oats, 25 to 30; wheat, 12 to 15; rye, 6 to 8; barley, 40 to 50; Irish potatoes, 100; sweet potatoes, 100; field peas, 10 to 20; ground peas, 50; cotton, 600 pounds; crab grass, 2,000 to 3,000 pounds; corn fodder, 4,000 to 6,000 pounds; sorghum syrup, 150 gallons; sugar cane syrup, 150 gallons.
  A fine vein of kaolin is being developed. The county has an abundance of oak, hickory, poplar, ash, gum, with other timbers for manufacturing implements of husbandry and furniture. The soil, with its clay foundation, is well adapted to the grasses for hay and grazing purposes.

Source" Georgia: Her Resources and Possibilities: Her Resources and Possibilities By Georgia Dept. of Agriculture, R. T. Nesbitt, Georgia;
Published by Franklin Printing and Publishing Co., 1895
 
 

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