Historic Sites in Montgomery County

The history of Montgomery County

Montgomery County, Georgia's twentieth county, was created on December 19, 1793, from Washington County in country once inhabited by the Lower Muscogee (Creek) people. It honors Richard Montgomery, the Continental Army brigadier general killed while leading the 1775 attack on Quebec. The county originally covered far more ground; Tattnall and Wheeler counties, among others, were later carved from it, while an 1812 act added land from Telfair County. Its first county seat was at Arthur Lott's plantation, and after boundary changes Mount Vernon, named for George Washington's Virginia estate, was recognized as the seat in 1813. Many early settlers were Revolutionary War veterans and Scots who came down from North Carolina, attracted by wiregrass pasture and pine forests, and a loosely enforced headright system invited speculation and land fraud. Because its soils did not favor large plantations, the county's population was mostly white before the Civil War. Real growth came afterward with railroads, logging and truck farming made possible by chemical fertilizers, and the population climbed from 3,586 in 1870 to 16,359 in 1900. Brewton-Parker College was founded in 1904 at Mount Vernon and Ailey, and the Montgomery County Courthouse, built in 1907, still anchors Mount Vernon.

Sources: georgiaencyclopedia.orgen.wikipedia.orgmontcoga.gov