Historic Sites in Colquitt County

The history of Colquitt County

Colquitt County was created in 1856 from parts of Thomas and Lowndes counties, on lands the Muscogee (Creek) and Seminole peoples had ceded between 1814 and 1818. It is named for Walter Terry Colquitt, a lawyer, judge, circuit-riding Methodist preacher, and statesman. The county seat, Moultrie, was incorporated in 1859 and named for General William Moultrie, a Revolutionary War leader who later governed South Carolina. Early settlers called the surrounding longleaf country the Pine Barrens, and for decades the economy depended on timber and naval stores such as turpentine used in shipbuilding. Moultrie stayed small until the 1890s, when the Boston and Albany Railroad, later the Georgia Northern Railway, arrived and the lumber trade boomed. By 1900 most of the timber had been cut, so local leaders recruited experienced farmers from the Carolinas and north Georgia. The resulting Colquitt County Plan, a five-year crop-diversification system, later served as a model for the federal Farm Security Administration during the Great Depression. Livestock became another pillar: the Moultrie Packing Company opened in 1914, Swift and Company took it over in 1917, and meatpacking remained central to the town's economy for most of the century. The Colquitt County Courthouse, built in 1902, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.

Sources: georgiaencyclopedia.orggeorgiaencyclopedia.orghmdb.org