Historic Sites in Macon County

The history of Macon County

Macon County was created on December 14, 1837, as Georgia's ninety-first county, from parts of Houston and Marion counties. Like the city of Macon, which lies in Bibb County, it was named for Nathaniel Macon of North Carolina, a Revolutionary War veteran who served in Congress for 37 years. Before white settlement the region was home to Muscogee (Creek) and Yuchi (Uchee) people, and trader Timothy Barnard, who was married to a Yuchi woman, ran a trading post until his death in 1820. The first county seat was Lanier, incorporated in 1838. After the Central of Georgia Railroad was built through Oglethorpe in the 1850s, voters approved moving the seat there in 1856, and Oglethorpe took over the following year. During the Civil War the Confederate prison at Andersonville operated about nine miles south of Oglethorpe. Designed to hold 10,000 Union prisoners, it held 33,000 at its peak, and some 13,000 died of hunger and disease; the prison's commander, Henry Wirz, was later executed for war crimes. Andersonville National Cemetery, established for the Union dead, lies at the county's southwestern tip. Later, Samuel H. Rumph developed the Elberta peach in Macon County, a variety that helped earn Georgia its reputation as the Peach State. The county is also home to a Mennonite community.

Sources: georgiaencyclopedia.orgen.wikipedia.org