Historic Sites in Walton County

The history of Walton County

Walton County was established on December 15, 1818, on lands previously held by the Cherokee and Muscogee (Creek) peoples, and it honors George Walton, a Georgia signer of the Declaration of Independence who also served briefly as governor. Monroe, first called Walton Court House, was incorporated as the county seat in 1821, and its courthouse dates to 1884. Early settlers were mostly farmers growing cotton, grain, potatoes and tobacco, and cotton mills were operating by the 1840s. Social Circle, at the highest point on the Georgia Railroad, was an important stop, and Union troops wrecked its tracks during Sherman's 1864 campaign. Textile mills multiplied in the 1890s, though the boll weevil, soil erosion and the Great Depression later brought hard years. Governors Alfred H. Colquitt, Henry McDaniel and Clifford Walker were born in the county, and Moina Belle Michael, who originated the memorial poppy, was born near Good Hope. Walton County was also the scene of one of the most notorious racial killings of the era: on July 25, 1946, an unmasked white mob beat and shot two Black couples, George and Mae Murray Dorsey and Roger and Dorothy Dorsey Malcom, at Moore's Ford Bridge on the Apalachee River. The murders were never solved, and a historical marker placed in 1999 remembers the victims.

Sources: georgiaencyclopedia.orggeorgiahistory.com