Historic Sites in Echols County

The history of Echols County

Echols County was formed in 1858 from parts of Clinch and Lowndes counties on Georgia's border with Florida. It was named for Robert M. Echols, who spent twenty years in the state legislature and commanded troops in the Mexican War. Seminole people lived in the area before white settlement. The county seat, Statenville, was first known as Troublesome, after nearby Troublesome Creek, and took its present name when it was chartered in 1859, possibly in honor of local farmer and storekeeper James W. Staten. Two wooden courthouses served the county between 1859 and 1897, and the current courthouse was built in 1956. Pine forest covers more than nine-tenths of the land, and the local economy has always leaned on farming and forestry. John Wesley Langdale, who founded the Langdale timber business in 1894, is among the county's best-known figures. From 1910 to 1924 the short Statenville Railway linked the county seat with Haylow. The county's schools trace the arc of segregation and integration: Echols Consolidated School was built in 1931, Herctoma School opened in 1948 for African American students, and the two were combined in 1970 as Statenville Consolidated School. Novelist Janice Daugharty is another of the county's notable residents.

Sources: georgiaencyclopedia.org