Historic Sites in Lee County

The history of Lee County

Lee County was laid out by an act of June 9, 1825, on land ceded by the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, and it received its name in December 1826. The original county was enormous, taking in all of what later became Randolph, Stewart, Quitman, Sumter, Terrell, and Webster counties along with parts of Marion and Clay. Its namesake has been debated: the Georgia Historical Society's marker credits Richard Henry Lee of Virginia, who on June 7, 1776, moved that the colonies declare independence, while other accounts point to the Revolutionary cavalry officer Henry "Light-Horse Harry" Lee. Cotton plantations dominated the antebellum economy. The first county seat was Starkville, named for Revolutionary general John Stark. In 1857 the Southwestern Railroad was completed between Americus and Albany, giving rise to new towns along the line; Smithville was incorporated in 1863, and the railroad town of Wooten Station became the county seat in 1872 and was renamed Leesburg in 1874. Peanuts and corn later joined cotton as major crops. In July 1963, during civil rights protests, a group of African American girls was arrested and confined without charges in the Lee County Stockade in a single cell without running water or bedding. Photographs by SNCC's Danny Lyon helped win their release that September, and a Georgia Civil Rights Trail marker now tells their story.

Sources: georgiahistory.comgeorgiahistory.comgeorgiaencyclopedia.org