Historic Sites in Dougherty County

The history of Dougherty County

Dougherty County was created in 1853 from Baker County, gained land from Worth County in 1854 and 1856, and was named for Charles Dougherty, an Athens judge honored for his strong support of states' rights. Its county seat and only incorporated city, Albany, is older than the county itself. Nelson Tift founded the town in October 1836 on the Flint River as a market for cotton growers, arriving just as the Muscogee (Creek) were being driven from the region. Wealthy planters from eastern Georgia and South Carolina, drawn by fertile soil and river transport, built a cotton economy dependent on enslaved labor, and barges carried bales downriver toward Apalachicola Bay. Tift hired the African American bridge builder Horace King to construct a covered toll bridge and the brick Bridge House, which still stands. After emancipation Black voters helped elect state legislators before their rights were suppressed, and in 1961 and 1962 the Albany Movement confronted segregation in the city; the Albany Civil Rights Institute, opened in 1998, preserves that history. Pecans and peanuts eventually displaced cotton, World War II brought two pilot training fields, and Albany grew into a rail hub served by seven railroads. Major Flint River floods struck in 1841, 1925, and 1994. Albany natives include Ray Charles and Olympic high jump champion Alice Coachman.

Sources: georgiaencyclopedia.orggeorgiaencyclopedia.org