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Putnam 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
PUTNAM.
Putnam was laid off from Baldwin in 1807. It was named in honor of the brave old general, and its county site for
General Eaton, who had distinguished himself in the war with Tripoli. It had been on the eastern border of the
Creek Nation for over twenty-five years.
Hancock, which was originally Greene, had been settled since 1785, and was just across the river, and while the
Whites had made no permanent settlements in the Nation on the west side of the river, many of them had their cattle
ranches, and perhaps not a few had opened farms in the unceded country before the purchase was made in 1803.
When the land was distributed by lottery the popu lation in the eastern counties was already considerable, and
especially on the good lands in Hancock there were thick settlements. As soon as the new purchase was opened the
restless people of the counties near by pressed into it. Other immigrants joined them, many of them from Virginia
and a larger number from the eastern counties of the State.
The county was one of the fairest in middle Georgia In the descriptions of the eastern counties we have described
this charming country. Grand forests covered the hills, limpid streams made their way through great brakes of cane.
The Oconee bordered the county on one side, and Little river made its way entirely through it. Bold brooks and
large creeks were in all parts of it. Much of the land was the rich mulatto land, esteemed by the old planters
as the best in the world; much of it was in rich valleys on the sides of creeks and rivers, and much of it a less
fertile but more easily cultivated gray land. There was but little really sterile land in the county, and none
of it was waste. It was not to be wondered at that so fair a land was at once peopled, and it was only a few months
after the whites were permitted to settle before the country was teeming with inhabitants and the smoke rose from
hundreds of camp-fires before the one-roomed cabin was built. The ferries were kept going night and day and immigrants
came rushing in.
The first settlers were: Wm. Wilkins, Benj. Williamson, John Lamar, John Buckner, Elias S. Shorter, Stephen Marshall,
John McBride, Captain Vesey, James Hightower, John Trippe, Isaac More land, John White, Benj. Whitefield, Jos.
Cooper, Josiah Flournoy, M. Ponder, Ward Hill, Rev. R. Pace, Rev. John Collinsworth, R. Bledsoe, Wm. Turner, Wylie
Roberts, Mark Jackson, Peter Flournoy, Thos. Park, Raleigh Holt, A. Richardson, Tarpley Holt, James Kendrick, Reuben
Herndon, T. Woodbridge, Joseph Turner, Warren Jackson, Edward Traylor, Samuel M. Echols, James Echols, E. Abercrombie,
Matthew Gage, Thomas Napier, Wm. Jackson, Simon Holt.
None of these new counties, of which Putnam was one, could be said to have had any first settlers. They came in
droves, and those mentioned are a few of many. These first people were mainly Georgians, the land being given away
to Georgians by lottery. The lots were two hundred and two and one half acres in size, and when Putnam was first
settled it was dotted all over with small farms.
Provisions were the only products. Tobacco was not raised and cotton was not as yet planted. Corn, hogs and cattle
there were in great abundance. The people were not many of them people of means, and the luxuries enjoyed by the
planters of Columbia and Burke were not during this decade found in this new county.
The first people came not only from the older counties of Georgia, but from North Carolina, Virginia and Maryland.
There was little to distinguish them from those we have pictured as living in Hancock and Greene. They were much
the same, and, as in Greene, the still-house was not far from the church, and in the inventory of estates the psalm-book
and the Bible are put close beside the thirty-gallon still.
After the war of 1812, and the wonderful impetus given to cotton production, the people of Putnam increased their
wealth very rapidly. Lands were fresh and rich, cotton was high, negroes were comparatively cheap and increased
rapidly, and those who settled with a few slaves in the County in 1803 found themselves the owners of a hundred
by 1830. There was little elegance but much solid com fort in the county until about 1845, when a number of handsome
homes were erected on the plantations or in Eatonton. These mansions, with generally eight large rooms twenty feet
square, with broad galleries and wide halls, were handsomely furnished, and the hospitality dispensed was generous.
There were fine carriage horses, coachmen, footmen, maid servants and men servants, and there was nowhere a more
elegant and luxurious life than was found in many of the families of Putnam.
The population of the county in 1810 was 6,809 whites and 3,220 slaves; in 1830 there were 5,554 whites and 7,707
slaves; in 1850 the free population had been reduced to 3,326 whites, and there were 7,468 slaves.
These figures tell the story of the great changes which passed over this magnificent country. The necessity of
providing for so many dependents left the slaveholder but little time to improve his plantation, and when he wore
out his lands he opened new forests, until he had laid the whole wood low. He found himself at the end of the war
between the States with a yard full of negroes, a sadly impoverished plantation and a heavy debt.
The railroad reached Eatonton as a branch of the Central soon after the Milledgeville branch was completed. It
was finally extended to Covington, so that the city of Eatonton has now good railroad facilities.
Putnam early had academies, and the academy at Eatonton was a famous school taught by Alonzo Church, afterward
president of the State University. There were some county academies in addition to the central academy, and quite
a number of private schools. A famous academy was known as Union academy, near where Philadelphia church now is.
Here William H. Seward, a young New Yorker, taught a country school. He afterward returned to New York, became
its governer, and was in after time secretary of state. Near this same church Jos. A. Turner, an eccentric, gifted
man, published the Countryman, and in his country office Joel Chandler Harris learned his trade as a printer and
began his career as a writer for the press.
The Baptists, Methodists and Presbyterians came with the first settlers into the county, and there were organizations
of these churches before the county was separated from Baldwin.
The first Baptist church was Harmony, which was organized in 1806 The first Methodist church building was Victory,
built before 1812. The first Presbyterian church was built near the same time.
Up to 1819 there was no church in Eatonton. The population of the village was small and the church people held
their connection with country churches. Then, largely through the influence of Rev. Coleman Pendleton, the ordinary,
a union church was built. William Arnold and John Collinsworth, two famous Methodist preachers, lived near Eatonton.
Dr. Henry Branham, a man of large intelligence and wisdom, was a prominent man in Putnam. He was the father of
the beloved and gifted Walter R. Branham, who was born in this county, and who was for many years a prominent Methodist
preacher in Georgia.
Judge James Meriwether was a scion of that distinguished family which has been so noted for public services in
Virginia and Georgia. He was a judge of the superior court, a member of Congress and speaker of the Georgia House
of Representatives.
Irby H. Hudson, for years speaker of the House, also lived here.
The Rev. John W. Knight, one of the most gifted and worthy Methodist preachers, whose praise is in all the Churches,
lived in this county for years, and died while residing in it.
Judge David Rosser Adams, one of the worthiest of men, long lived here.
Josiah Flournoy was in Putnam at its first settlement. He was a pushing planter, an enthusiastic Christian and
the first prohibitionist in Georgia. He canvassed the State to secure signers to a petition to abolish the whisky
traffic, and made a brave though unsuccessful fight against it. He made a large fortune, gave liberally to all
benevolences, and built and endowed a school near Talbotton, which he called in honor of an old friend Collinsworth
Institute.
Alexander Reid, famous as an enterprising and public-spirited planter, and as the progenitor of a large and influential
family, resided in this county.
These are a few of those worthy people who have made this county famous.
©2007 Genealogy Trails
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