Historic Sites in Taylor County

The history of Taylor County

Taylor County was organized in 1852 from parts of Macon, Marion and Talbot counties as Georgia's ninety-ninth county and named for President Zachary Taylor, who had died in office in 1850. Its seat, Butler, was incorporated on February 8, 1854, and named for General William Orlando Butler, a Mexican War hero. The northeastern part of the county lies east of the Flint River on land that once belonged to the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. The Federal Road, a stage route between Richmond and New Orleans that followed older Indian trails, crossed the area and came to be called the Wire Road after telegraph lines were strung beside it. Fort Lawrence, established by federal Indian agent Benjamin Hawkins, is among the county's early historic sites. By 1860 nearly 6,000 people lived in the county, and cotton and peaches became its leading crops. Taylor County was also the scene of a notorious act of racial violence. In July 1946, after a federal court struck down Georgia's whites-only Democratic primary, World War II veteran Maceo Snipes became the first African American in the county to vote in that primary. The next day a white man shot him in the back outside his grandfather's farmhouse, and he died of his wounds on July 20; a coroner's jury ruled the shooting justified.

Sources: georgiaencyclopedia.orgcoldcases.emory.edu