Historic Sites in Pulaski County

The history of Pulaski County

Pulaski County was created on December 13, 1808, from Laurens County and named for Count Casimir Pulaski, the Polish officer who died from wounds received fighting for American independence in Georgia and was buried at Savannah. Muscogee (Creek) people had long kept villages along the Ocmulgee River before treaties and removal opened the area to white settlement. In 1810 the county seat was fixed at Hartford, a settlement believed to be named for Revolutionary War heroine Nancy Hart. During the War of 1812, General David Blackshear made his headquarters at Hartford and built a trail south to Fort Early, a route Andrew Jackson later followed in his 1818 campaign against the Creeks and Seminoles. In 1836 the seat moved across the Ocmulgee to Hawkinsville, on higher ground less exposed to floods and named for Benjamin Hawkins, the longtime U.S. agent to the Creek Nation. Hawkinsville grew into an important river port, with steamboats carrying freight downstream to the coast, and the Georgia Supreme Court held sessions there from time to time. The county later lost territory to Dodge County in 1870 and Bleckley County in 1912. Agriculture has remained the backbone of the local economy, and Hawkinsville is home to the Lawrence L. Bennett Harness Horse Training Facility.

Sources: georgiaencyclopedia.orggeorgiahistory.comgeorgiahistory.com