Historic Sites in Morgan County

The history of Morgan County

Morgan County was created in 1807 from Baldwin County and named for Daniel Morgan, a general of the Revolutionary War. Madison, incorporated as the county seat in 1809, took its name from President James Madison. Until 1818 the county bordered Muscogee (Creek) lands to the west, and in 1813, during the War of 1812, Creek warriors killed about ten settlers in its western section near today's Hard Labor Creek State Park. Cotton brought rapid growth: the 1820 census counted 13,520 residents, nearly 45 percent of them enslaved. Madison became a regional center of learning, with women's colleges founded in 1849 and 1850, and the Georgia Railroad reached the town by 1841. When Sherman's army swept through on the March to the Sea, it destroyed depots, cotton gins and warehouses, but tradition holds that Madison resident and U.S. congressman Joshua Hill persuaded Sherman to spare the town itself, giving rise to its reputation as the town too pretty to burn. After the war cotton gave way over time to dairying and later to timber. Madison's historic district, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974, preserves many antebellum homes. The county is also the home ground of self-taught painter George Andrews and his sons, artist Benny Andrews and writer Raymond Andrews.

Sources: georgiaencyclopedia.orggeorgiaencyclopedia.org