Historic Sites in Mitchell County

The history of Mitchell County

Mitchell County was created by the Georgia legislature on December 21, 1857, from part of Baker County. The 1857 act named it for General Henry Mitchell, a Warren County state senator who served as president of the Georgia Senate, although some historians have credited Governor David B. Mitchell instead. Camilla became the county seat on fifty acres donated by David West for a courthouse and jail; a frame courthouse built in 1860 was replaced by a brick one in 1890. Alongside Camilla, the towns of Baconton, Pelham and Sale City grew up in farm country known for cotton, peanuts, pecans and other crops. The county's past also includes two notorious acts of racial violence. On September 19, 1868, during Reconstruction, white residents opened fire on African American Republicans gathered for a political rally in Camilla, killing about a dozen people and wounding some thirty more. In July 1962, at the height of the Albany Movement, Marion King, the pregnant wife of movement co-founder Slater King, was struck and kicked by officers at the Mitchell County jail in Camilla while bringing food and clothing to arrested Black children. Restored railroad depots in Camilla and Pelham, along with National Register properties such as the Bacon Family Homestead and Mount Enon Church, preserve traces of the county's history.

Sources: georgiaencyclopedia.orggeorgiahistory.comcoldcaserecords.gov