By CAROLYN CARY
ccary@TheCitizenNews.com

While Fayette County was one of five counties formed in 1821, it is also "mother" to four new counties.

One of those in Campbell County, formed from part of Fayette in 1828.

A county seat was established and called "Campbellton," but in 1870 the site was moved to Fairburn due to that site being situated on the Atlanta and West Point Railroad.

One of the well-known families associated with both counties is that of Elder John S. Dodd, who came to Fayette County in 1830. He preached at Bethsaida Baptist Church for 50 years. While it originally sat in Fayette, that section of land became part of Campbell. One of his sons, Thomas Edward Dodd, served in the Confederacy and while he did not become a preacher himself, he was determined that his sons would.

He moved his family to Macon where they trained in the ministry at Mercer University. Upon returning to Campbell County, one of these five Ed Dodd, pastored at Bethsaida for many years, and one of his sons, Lamar, was born in Fairburn and later received fame as an artist. He became the director of the art department at the University of Georgia.

The Peters family also is associated with both counties. One of the original sons, George Peters II and his wife, Caroline, decided that none of their eight children would ever be allowed to marry. Only one daughter defied this ruling and eloped. She was also "discommunicated" from her family. The other seven lived together as a Shaker-type family unit until they all died.

In 1931 Campbell County officials decided that the depression times made the area too "pore and needy" to keep trying to maintain a county government. Its entire budget had to be derived from property taxes as the horse and buggy type of industry it had maintained had collapsed with the coming of the motor age.

Campbell citizens began to look to the bright lights of Atlanta and what they thought were better prospects of improved schools and roads.

Jan. 1, 1932, Campbell County was voted off the map and became a part of Fulton County.

Interested in local history? Write to Nancy J. Cornell, Old Campbell County Historical Society, P.O. Box 342, Fairburn 30213.

Carolyn Cary is a historian and writer living in Fayetteville, Ga.