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Walton 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
WALTON.
When the first effort was made to settle the Cherokee Country in 1802 a new county was projected to be called Walton,
and a bill was passed to lay it out. The act was never carried into effect, but in 1818 a new county bearing the
same name was provided for, and it was organized.
White gives as the first settlers in this county: Charles Smith, R. M. Echols, P. Stroud, Jno. Dickerson, Warren
J. Hill, Jesse Arnold, Walter T. Colquitt, Jonas Hale, V. Haralson, J. M. Well, A. W. Wright, C. D. Davis, W. Briscoe,
R. Briscoe, R. Milligan and J. Richardson.
The county was a very large one, and, in the main, not a fertile one. The larger part of the land was a light gray
soil, moderately productive at first but soon exhausted. There were, however, some bottoms on the creeks and rivers
which were very fertile. The climate was good, the country healthy, the land cheap, and there soon came into this
section a very large number of immigrants. Many of therm had been the fortunate drawers of the lots of two hundred
and fifty and one-half acres and were from other parts of Georgia, and many of them were from the upper part of
South Carolina.
So rapidly was the county peopled that in twelve years after it was opened for settlement there were nearly ten
thousand people living in it.
Land was sold in lots of two hundred and fifty acres and generally brought about one hundred dollars per lot, or
less than fifty cents per acre. A lot sold at sheriff’s sale brought five dollars and a quarter, another brought
twenty-five dollars, but land on the rivers even as early as 1821 brought seven dollars per acre.
The first place at which court was held was the Cowpen, which was two miles from Monroe.
Judge John M. Dooly held the court. As was universally the case in new counties the larger number of cases was
for assaults. There were, however, bills for hog-stealing, perjury, adultery and mayhem, and a group of men were
charged with gambling at seven-up, three-up and faro.
There was loud complaint against illicit liquor-selling where men sold less than a quart without license.
One man was presented and finally punished for cruelly whipping his slave, and one was condemned to be hung for
murder. He was, however, pardoned.
While there were few people among the first settlers of Walton who were wealthy, and many quite poor, there was
a large number of well-to-do people with from five to ten negroes and an abundance of cheap but productive land.
To illustrate the general condition of the well-to-do people one estate shows: 10 negroes, 33 hogs, 17 cattle,
kitchen and household furniture, and, what was rare, forty-five dollars’ worth of books, while some of the estates
indicate abundant means. Theophilus Hill had 42 negroes, 22 sheep, 350 barrels of corn, 12 beds and bedsteads,
$100 worth of hogs, 2 cotton-gins, etc.
The bulk of the people had only their land and a small number of cattle, horses, hogs, and a scant supply of furniture.
There was but little cotton and very little of any thing was made for sale. Corn, hogs and cattle, as in all the
new counties, were the products. The coming of new settlers into the county provided a market for the surplus the
farmers might have.
Monroe was selected as the county site, and named Mon roe after the then president. It soon became a prominent
up-country town and the center of quite a coterie of prominent men.
Walter T. Colquitt, then a young lawyer, settled in this little village and made his first reputation as a brilliant
lawyer in the courts of this new country.
Judge James Jackson, so famous for the purity of his life and his ability as a jurist, and Judge Junius Hillyer,
a prominent lawyer and a member of Congress, were among its citizens.
Governor Henry D. McDaniel, famous as being one of the best governors Georgia has ever had, began his professional
life in Monroe, and after his term was over returned there to spend his last years.
Monroe was long a secluded country village with small trade and a small population, but since it has been reached
by the railway has become quite a thrifty town, with a fine court-house, a good graded school and some prosperous
cotton mills. Social Circle, on the Georgia railway, is a sprightly and enterprising village; and Logansville,
in the northwestern part of the county, is a village of considerable trade. Bethlehem is a small hamlet north of
Monroe.
The educational advantages of the county for many years were quite poor, but they are better now than they ever
were. The people who came into Walton were mainly Methodists and Baptists, and the Walton circuit of the Methodist
preacher was a very large and important one in the early days of the county’s settlement. In 1827 there was a great
revival in Monroe, at which Walter Colquitt, a young lawyer, was converted; and a number of years afterward, in
the same village, young James Jackson, afterward judge of the superior court and member of Congress, and finally
chief justice of the State, was converted and became a lay preacher.
The Baptists were among the first Christian workers in the county, and perhaps the oldest church in the county
is a Primitive Baptist Church.
©2007 Genealogy Trails
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