Historic Sites in Telfair County

The history of Telfair County

Telfair County was created in 1807 from Wilkinson County and named for Edward Telfair, a governor of Georgia. The Muscogee (Creek) originally occupied the land, and many of the first white settlers were Scots Highlanders who came by way of the Carolinas. The original county seat, Jacksonville, was established on the Ocmulgee River the year the county was formed. During the War of 1812, General David Blackshear built Fort Clark near Jacksonville along with two other forts in the county, and in 1818 thirty-four Telfair militiamen fought in the Battle of Breakfast Branch. The county gave up territory to form Coffee County in 1854 and Dodge County in 1870. When the Macon and Brunswick Railroad routed its line through McRae, the depot town became the county seat in 1871 and was incorporated in 1874. Truck farming, dairying, poultry, berries and turpentine sustained the economy, and Lumber City, incorporated in 1889, was home to what was described as the largest sawmill in the South. The county's notable natives and residents include Governor John Clark, Governor Eugene Talmadge and his son, U.S. Senator Herman Talmadge, along with novelist Brainard Cheney and Marion B. Folsom, who helped establish the Social Security system.

Sources: georgiaencyclopedia.org