Historic Sites in Pike County

The history of Pike County

Pike County was created in 1822 from Monroe County, on land the Muscogee (Creek) had ceded in 1821, and it later gave up territory to form Upson County in 1824, Spalding County in 1851 and Lamar County in 1920. Both the county and its seat, Zebulon, incorporated in 1825, are named for Zebulon Pike, the explorer of the Louisiana Territory whose name was given to Colorado's Pikes Peak and who served as a general in the War of 1812. Early settlers traveled along paths first used by Native Americans, and the Old Alabama Road linking Augusta and Columbus passed through the county. In the 1830s planks were laid over one route so it could bear stagecoaches, creating the Old Plank Road. The county's courthouses track its growth: a wooden courthouse of 1825 gave way to a brick Greek Revival building in 1844, which was replaced in turn by the Romanesque Revival courthouse that has stood in Zebulon since 1895. Farming and forestry long sustained the economy, with cotton and peaches among the early crops and poultry and soybeans becoming important later. Its best-known native son may be the mystery writer Jacques Futrelle, creator of the detective called the Thinking Machine, who was born in Pike County in 1875 and died in the sinking of the Titanic in 1912.

Sources: georgiaencyclopedia.orgen.wikipedia.org