Talbot County History

Formed 1827

Talbot County was created by the State of Georgia in 1827 from Muscogee county.

Early Indian History

This land was Creek Indian land, and had been since well before 1500. We know there were at least 3, possibly more, Creek villages in now Talbot Co. One in the northern part of the County known as The Valley, one in the NE portion, near what is now Redbone or Ypsilanti, and one near the Fall line, between Geneva and Talbotton. Living in organized towns scattered along the water courses of the Flint and the Chattahoochee Rivers, they were farmers and hunters.

Their farms were well-fenced, and they raised a variety of crops, sweet potatoes, carrots, field peas, ground peas, rice, pumpkins, squash, sugar cane, corn, shumake, sassafras and rice, and cultivated fruit trees, such as peach, pear, orange, apple, and grapevines.

They raised livestock of all kinds, and probably had more hogs, sheep and cattle than any other Indian tribe in America.

The Creek Confederacy was composed of the Upper Creeks, which lived in towns on the Coosa and Tallapoosa Rivers, and the Lower Creeks on the Flint and Chattahoochee Rivers. The Upper Creeks, being more isolated and less exposed to the white man’s influence, were able to better maintain their tribal integrity. On the other end of the spectrum, the Lower Creeks, being more exposed and influenced by the encroaching whites, and their rapid westward expansion, were ever under increasing exposure & assimilation into the white man’s society.

Although there were interracial marriages in both the Upper and Lower Creek tribes, there apparently was a relatively much larger segment of Lower Creeks intermarriage with whites, than with the former. Intermarriages, social and political exposure, effected changes in both the indian and the white settler of the region.

The Creek Confederacy aligned itself with the British in the War of 1812. And as a condition of the Treaty ending the War, the Creeks ceded 20 million acres of prime land to the southern states.

As a result, the entire Creek Nation was living along the banks of the Chattahoochee River, leading to even more & greater assimilation into white society. Now, in the midst of upheaval, dispossessed of their native lands, forced into even closer contact with the white man, and the Lower Creeks who had already been somewhat assimilated already.

The Georgia Land Lottery system was a huge success. Meant to encourage the settlement of its frontiers, and overcome the Indian threat, settlers flocked into Georgia, ever hungry for more land. King Cotton was on the move.

At one point, the Creek Confederacy made a pact that no more land would be sold to the white man, without full agreement by the chiefs. Chief William McIntosh, however, under continued pressures, and already seeing the handwriting on the wall, finally agreed to sell all the Lower Creek lands to Georgia at the Treaty of Indian Springs in 1825. For his part, Chief McIntosh was murdered by some of his fellow tribesmen, and the once powerful Creek Confederacy was ended.

Within 2 years, the remaining Creeks were dispossessed of their lands. Many relocated to Indian Territory (Okla) in 1827, and some began moving into the uninhabited lands the whites considered waste land. There are still many Creeks living in the swamp land of lower Georgia and Florida.

The Treaty of Indian Springs paved the way for the 1827 Land Lottery which opened up that section of Georgia to even more settlers. There had ever been squatters, & indian traders in the area. Now their numbers increased drastically.

The 1827 Land Lottery became known as the New Purchase, and opened up the area to white settlement. Rich black soil was the prize; cotton, & wealth, the goal.

Evicted from their lands, destitute of their hunting and farming lands upon which their very foundation of being had for so long been built, hungry, caught between the Indian way and the white man’s way, the majority of the tribe resorted to desperate measures to survive. Marauding, stealing, murder became rampant.

In 1832, there were still some 21,762 Creek Indians still in the area, struggling for survival. Hence, when the official Creek Indian Wars began, the Talbot Co Militia were basically fighting from their own homes. Suffering from dis-organization, lack of weaponry, and hysteria, appeals were issued, petitions were signed by the white settlers.

When hostilities finally ended, the U. S. Army forcibly removed some 20,000 Creeks to Indian Territory in 1837-1837.

Talbot County Formed-1827

The entire area quickly became organized. Talbot Co was established December 1827, created from parts of Crawford, Marion, Harris, Macon and Muscogee Co’s, and Talbotton and Columbus in Muscogee Co became the trading centers of this whole area, growth from 1836 to the Civil War was rapid.

Talbot Co reached its zenith in the 1850-1860 decade. By 1850, its population was 16, 534, with 8,723 slaves, making it the 5th largest county in Georgia, and one of the wealthiest. Cotton production ranged as high as 18,000 bales a year, compared to less than 200 in 1970. In 1860, there were 2,978 mules and oxen, 2,449 horses and 13,399 cattle.

In that era, Talbot Co was a center of refinement, wealth and political power. As such, the first sitting of the Ga Supreme Court was held in Talbotton in January 1846. The Washington Academy, LeVert College and Collingsworth Institute were established. The County soon became filled with doctors, professors, lawyers, businessmen and entrepreneurs, and Talbotton had arrived as the center of culture, prestige, social graces, opportunity, education and political aspiration, second to none in the state.

The Civil War changed all that. Talbot Co sent nearly 1000 men into the conflict. Some 150 were killed, hundreds of others were wounded or died of disease. Man power was diminished, cash was practically non-existent.

Reconstruction finished it off. The slaves were gone, the wealth dissipated, cotton production had all but ceased, and the population began to dwindle, as workers left the farms for texile jobs in Thomaston, Columbus and LaGrange. By the early 1900’s, when the boll weevil struck the final blow, King Cotton was dead.