Historic Sites in Miller County

The history of Miller County

Miller County was created by an act of the legislature on February 26, 1856, from portions of Early and Baker counties, becoming Georgia's 117th county. It was named for Judge Andrew J. Miller, who died that same year after more than two decades in the legislature, including several terms as president of the state senate. Miller had long championed a bill giving married women separate property rights, and he also served as president of the Medical College of Georgia. The county seat, Colquitt, was designated in 1856 and named for Walter T. Colquitt, a clergyman, attorney, and judge who represented Georgia in the U.S. Senate from 1843 to 1848. Muscogee (Creek) Indians were the earliest known inhabitants, and Hernando de Soto's expedition passed through the region in 1540. White settlers began arriving in 1817, and by 1860 the county had nearly 1,800 inhabitants. By 1900 naval stores had overtaken cotton and corn in the local economy, and irrigation, first used in the county in 1968, later transformed farming. The Colquitt Town Square Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. In 1992 residents first staged Swamp Gravy, a play built from the recorded stories of Black and white Miller County residents; performed in a renovated cotton warehouse in Colquitt, it became Georgia's official folklife play.

Sources: georgiaencyclopedia.orggeorgiahistory.comgeorgiaencyclopedia.org