by George Gillman Smith, D.D.
Originally published c. 1901
Submitted by K. Torp
BULLOCH.
Bulloch was laid out from Screven and Bryan in 1796, and named in honor of the excellent Archibald Bulloch, governor
of Georgia. The Ogeechee river is on one side of it and the Canoochee on the other. There was some good oak and
hickory land on the rivers, but much of the county was piney woods, presenting the usual features of such a section.
It had been settled by stockmen, and White gives as the first settlers:
Benjamin Cook, Barnard Michael, John Everett, Jehu Everett, Andrew E. Wells, George Threadcraft, Chas. Mc Call,
Alex Stewart, M. Buckhalter, A. McKenzie, Daniel Lot, Arthur Lot, Wm. Mizell, L. Lanier, C. Lanier, D. Hendrix,
N. Sweat, Mr. Oliff, Mr. Shorter, the Groovers and Hodges.
There is very little save in the matter of personal detail to distinguish one piney woods county from another.
The physical features are the same, the pursuits of the people are the same, and their features of character are
almost exactly alike.
Bulloch was for many years a county where men owned large areas of land, which was valued at not more than twenty-five
cents an acre. On this land the cabin was built, and in the wide wire-grass pastures the cattle fed. Every man
was a landholder and every man was independent.
There were so few people that schools and churches were rare, and the children had very limited opportunities for
school training.
The larger body of the people of any religious faith were Baptists, and when the division of that denomination
took place they were mostly found among the Primitives, but the Methodists had a footing in the county from it
first settlement.
Life in these pine woods in the early days when the people found it difficult to go to the markets was very simple.
The farmer raised for family use upland rice, corn, potatoes toes, cattle and hogs. He had his own syrup kettle
and sugar-mill. His sheep furnished him with wool. His house was of logs, built by his own hands, and, while plain,
was sufficiently comfortable for his wishes. He raised some sea-island cotton and carried a few bales to Savannah,
where, with the produce of his hides, tallow and beeswax, he secured enough money to buy some salt, calico, cotton
and woolen cards and nails, and these were about the extent of his purchases.
There were in all this section, however, a few families of large wealth who had plantations on the richer lands
and lived in decided comfort, but for many years after the county was settled life was very primitive. With the
building of the railroads, the opening of the turpentine farms and the setting up of the sawmills, the same results
followed of which we have spoken elsewhere, and now Bulloch is one of the best of our inland counties.
