Fayette County in the early years

Since I've reached a temporary lull in my own family research, I thought I would use this time to start doing a few histories on Fayette and surrounding counties and their early residents.

To my knowledge so far, I don't have any direct ancestors who lived in Fayette County (well, at least before 1972 when my mom and dad moved to Tyrone), but I have discovered dozens of relatives who lived here in the early formative years. That was a pleasant surprise because, although I called Tyrone "home" for about 16 years, I had no idea my relatives had ever been here. In fact, before I started doing genealogy, I had no idea these folks were even my relatives at all.

Admittedly, I am no expert on Fayette County history, so much of the following information will be taken from "The History of Fayette County, 1821-1871," compiled and edited by my dear friend and co-worker, Carolyn Cary, and published by the Fayette County Historical Society back in 1977. This book can be found in just about any local library. Other information is taken from the 1830 Fayette County census, since that was the first federal census taken in Fayette after its formation in 1821. I sat down and browsed the entire census Tuesday evening and wrote down the name of every resident (thanks to Ancestry.com's online census images).

To give a very brief history for those of you who may be new residents, Fayette County was "born" in 1821. The Indian Treaty of 1821 created five counties: Fayette, Henry, Houston (for you new folks, that's pronounced "House-ton" not "Huse-ton"), Dooly and Monroe. The 1821 Land Lottery distributed the land in Fayette and she was off and running to make her place in history. Winners in the lottery paid a mere $19 recording fee, and the land was theirs.

Fayette was named for the Marquis de LaFayette, a young French officer who sympathized with the plight of the colonies and came to America to help fight the British in the Revolutionary War. Much about LaFayette is written in the Fayette history book and I won't go into any details here.

The other significant person in Fayette's early history was Chief William McIntosh, the son of a full blooded Scotsman and a Creek Indian maiden, who signed the treaty ceding the lands which became Fayette County. Chief McIntosh's family history also appears in the Fayette history book.

The Georgia Legislature in 1821 appointed Fayette's first Justices of the Inferior Court (now called county commissioners) to begin the task of organizing and building the county. Those first leaders were James Strawn, Thomas A. Dobbs, Richard Respass, J.M.C. Montgomery and Jesse Harris. The courthouse was to be as near as possible to the center of the county and the justices were given the authority to commission persons to do the building of structures, lay out the roads, and, in general get the first town started. This, of course, became Fayetteville, and the first permanent courthouse, begun in 1825, is still here. The town was officially incorporated in 1823.

Quoting from Carolyn's book, in a section written by her, " ... On March 28, 1823, the Inferior Court met at the house of John R. Cox and made the choice of a certain lot (no. 123) of the Fifth District and appointed Alexander Ware to purchase it for $800 from Joseph M. Post ... They also agreed at that time that this publick (sic) site should be known as Fayetteville. They then proceeded to advertise the lots for sale and to have them surveyed."

Larkin Bell was given $30 to lay out the lots in Fayetteville and Simeon Smith won with a bid of $78 to "let" a temporary courthouse.

Those purchasing the first lots in Fayetteville included John R. Cox, William Pegg, James Alford, John Caldwell, Henry B. Thompson, John L. Welch, Eldridge Millsaps, and Eldoridith (?) Kitchens.

Elected as the first Justices of the Inferior Court were James Strawn, William Morgan and Alexander Ware. The first clerks of the Inferior Court were James Alford and Allen Post. The first constable was Andrew McBride and his Justices of the Peace were John Thompson, James Mebrick, William Harkins and Aquilla Hardy. The first sheriff in 1822 was John Welch who was succeeded in 1823 and 1824 by Winston Wood. (Winston was the father-in-law of my great-great aunt, Nancy Blake Wood.)

Businessmen applying for the first business licenses (the cost was $5) were John H. Rooker, James Head, James Alford and Simeon Smith.

In 1824, the first trustees of the Fayette County Academy were named: James Head, Wiatt Heflin (Wyatt's daughter, Marietta, married John Blake, my great-grandfather's brother), Jordan Gay, William Gilliland Sr. and Finley G. Stewart.

Drawn for jury duty in 1836 were Robert M. Simms, John Davis, Jesse Allen, John Whaley (perhaps a relative of my 4th great-grandmother, Hester Whaley), John S. Dodd, John Sprewall, David Alewine, Richard Gibbs, Philip Fitzgerald (Margaret Mitchell's great-grandfather), Robert D. Dickson, Lovie P. Self, William H. Osborn, A.J. Hill, Henry Lancaster, James Morris, Harrison Walker, John H. Thomas, Thomas Carter, Seaborn Pate, Henry Berry, Henry Hardin, Macus Long (should be "Marcus," maybe?), David Colly and Samuel McDonald.

This is just a smattering of the information and family names found in this wonderful book. I'll try to give you more information another time. I think the book is out of print, but if we push the historical society, maybe they'll print it one more time. Seems like it would be a great fund-raiser.

Send stories about your southside Atlanta ancestors to The Citizen, Drawer 1719, Fayetteville, GA 30214; E-mail jkilgore@thecitizennews.com or jodiek444@aol.com.

Until next week, happy hunting!

(Judy regrets that time does not permit her to do personal research for others. She will willingly share research information on her own family lines, including collateral and allied lines.)

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