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Wilkinson County, Georgia History
from:
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
WILKINSON.
The lands purchased in 1802 were divided in 1803, as has been already stated, into three counties, Baldwin, Wilkinson
and Wayne. Out of each of these many other counties were carved, until each of them was reduced to a small area.
Wilkinson is now a county of moderate size and of limited resources. It is named Wilkinson in honor of the general
of that name who served in the southwest, and the county site, Irwinton, is named for Governor Irwin. The Central
railroad passes through its upper border, and it has two or three small villages along its line.
The first settlers, according to Mr. White, were: Chas. C. Beall, S. B. Mur phey, J. Hoover, J. Meredith, Abner
Hicks, A. Passmore, John Freeman, Joel Rivers, Samuel Bragg, John Lavender, Isaac Hull.
The population of Wilkinson in 1810 was 1,836 whites and only 318 slaves. In 1830, when it was much reduced in
size, there were 5,591 whites and 1,922 slaves; and in 1850 there were 5,467 whites and 2,745 slaves. In 1890 there
were, in all, 10,781. The county is not a fertile one, and has not been thickly settled, and its religious and
educational advantages have not been of the best. There has, however, been a good academy at the county site for
many years, and the county has shared in the advantages of the public school system.
The Methodists and Baptists have provided the people with what religious instruction they received, and there are
churches of these denominations in all parts of the county.
The county has been almost purely an agricultural one, and there has not been a single manufactory in its borders.
Much of the land is quite poor and inhabited by poor people who furnish to the Macon cotton mills a large part
of their operatives.
There is little to distinguish Wilkinson from the other counties that have been classified with it, and it is at
present less important as a county than it was sixty years ago.
©2007 Genealogy Trails
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