Historic Sites in Spalding County

The history of Spalding County

Spalding County was formed by the Georgia legislature in 1851 from sections of Fayette, Henry and Pike counties and named for Thomas Spalding, a planter and statesman from coastal Georgia. Its seat, Griffin, is older than the county. The site, first settled in the mid-1820s and known as Pleasant Grove, was bought in 1840 by Lewis Lawrence Griffin, a banker and railroad president who laid out a planned town with broad boulevards; it took his name and was incorporated in 1843 while still part of Pike County. During the Civil War, infantry units mustered at Camp Stephens, two miles north of town, and residents cared for wounded soldiers in hospitals and private homes. Heavy damage to the railroads left the county in severe financial distress, and textile mills became the engine of recovery, though Reconstruction, the boll weevil and the Great Depression each brought hard times. In 1888, after local citizens lobbied for it, the Georgia Experiment Station opened at Griffin; the agricultural research center is now part of the University of Georgia. Stonewall Confederate Cemetery holds the remains of more than 500 Confederate soldiers. John Henry "Doc" Holliday was born in Griffin in 1851, and Olympic track athletes Wyomia Tyus and Margaret Matthews also came from the county.

Sources: georgiaencyclopedia.orggeorgiaencyclopedia.orgen.wikipedia.org