Historic Sites in Evans County

The history of Evans County

Evans County was created in 1914 from parts of Bulloch and Tattnall counties and named for Clement Evans, a Confederate general. Its story is closely tied to the railroad. When the Savannah and Western Railroad reached the area in the 1890s, the Hendricks family granted right-of-way for a station and promised a free well for trains stopping on their land, and the stop grew into Claxton, incorporated in 1911 and chosen as the county seat. The neoclassical revival courthouse in Claxton was completed in 1923. Farming, timber harvesting, naval stores, turpentine production, and cotton ginning shaped the local economy. A bakery founded in Claxton in 1910 became nationally known after civic leader Albert Parker pioneered the mass marketing of Claxton Fruit Cake, giving the town its nickname, the Fruitcake Capital of the World. The county also holds a place in medical history through cardiologist Curtis Gordon Hames, whose research here produced early published evidence that HDL cholesterol helps protect against heart disease. Other incorporated towns include Hagan, Daisy, and Bellville, where a restored railroad depot hosts an annual Railroad Days celebration. Country songwriter Tom T. Hall paid tribute to that small town in his song God Came through Bellville, Georgia.

Sources: georgiaencyclopedia.org