By CAROLYN CARY
ccary@thecitizenews.com

With all the current blitz about turning in one's census form, examining all the decade census figures for Fayette County is interesting.

Fayette was created in 1821, so our first census took place in 1830. The figures at that time showed 5,555 living here, most of them by drawing land in a lottery draw.

You could participate in this land lottery by meeting one of several standards: you were a Revolutionary War veteran, a widow with minor children, a bachelor 18 or older, a three-year resident in Georgia, three-year citizen of United States, etc.

Fayette County had been cut up into lots of 202.5 acres lots and, for this grant of land, you paid a whopping $19 filing fee.

If you take a look at the census figures, you will note that the population dropped 3,800 from 1850 to 1860. This was not due to the War Between The States, which did not begin until 1861, but the creation of a new county. Clayton County was created in 1858 and prior to this, Fayette County extended east past Jonesboro. The loss of citizens to a new county accounted for the drop.

The population dropped a whopping 5,000 from 1920 to 1930, due to the arrival of the boll weevil. Cotton was the “cash crop” with little diversification. When the crops were devastated within two years, sharecroppers, which made up over half of those farming, were left with no income.

They left for major cities north with one of those being Detroit. It was gearing up its auto assembly lines and provided an income not dependent on the weather.

An interesting point to note is that if you take the average of our population from 1830 to 1970, it comes out to approximately 5,800 persons, or 41.5 persons per year over a 140-year period.

If you consider the next 30 years, the population jumps from 11,364 to the current estimated population of 93,000 persons, for an average of 2,721 per year.

It is speculated by some that the county may well “top out” at 120,000 about the year 2020. Because the county contains 199 square miles, that will still leave a lot of green space for parks and trees, should that become a reality.