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Henry 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
HENRY.
Henry county, which was laid off in 1821, was rapidly populated. It was named in honor of Patrick Henry and its
county town after the gallant McDonough. In 1830, not ten years after it was made a county, there were over 10,000
inhabitants in its borders. It was a healthy county; land was cheap, and settlers from South Carolina and the older
counties in Georgia crowded into it. They were very plain, good people—industrious, economical and religious. Much
of the land was hilly, and much of it very thin; but it produced those things that were needed for the sup port
of its inhabitants, and there was no want among them.
The first superior court, according to White, was held in 1822, at the house of Wm. Ruff, and the names of the
first grand jurors were: Wm. Jackson, Wm. Malone, James Sellers, James Pate, Thomas Abercrombie, C. Cochran, G.
Gay, Wm. Wood, Willie Terrell, Jether Barnes, Robert Shaw, Jas. Colwell, John Brooks, F. Pearson, Wm. McKnight,
Jacob Hinton, Jackson Smith, S. Strickland. The first settlers, according to the same authority, were: Wm. Hardin,
Jesse Johnson, James Sellers, H. J. Williams, Wm. Pate, D. Johnson, W. H. Turner, M. Brooks, S. Weems, W. Herbert,
Roland Brown, R. M. Sims, Wm. Crawford, E. Mosely, John Brooks, Reuben Deming, Jacob Hinton, E. Brooks, John Calloway,
R. Jenks, Colonel S. Strickland, Parker Eason, Jos. Kirk, Wm. Griffin, John Griffin, Daniel Smith, Wm. Tuggle,
John Lovejoy.
Henry was drawn upon very largely by Griffin on one side and Atlanta on the other; but its population, which was
over 10,000 in 1830, was 14,726 in 1850. Of these there were nearly 5,000 slaves.
When the Southern railway from Macon to Atlanta and the Midland from McDonough to Columbus were opened, the country
was furnished with the best railroad facilities, flourishing villages sprang up along the line, and McDonough,
which had declined until it was a very small hamlet, began to take on the proportions of a considerable and prosperous
county town.
The people of Henry have always been noted for their moral and religious excellence. The Baptists and Method ists
have been the main bodies of Christians. The Methodists for many years had a very prosperous camp-ground in the
county, and at one time more than one.
Hampton is a small but sprightly village on the line of the M. & W. R. R., and Locust Grove and Stockbridge
flourishing towns on the Southern.
©2007 Genealogy Trails
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