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Troup County was laid out in 1826. A part was set off to Harris in 1827, and a part to Heard in 1830. It was named for Hon. George M. Troup, who was born at Macintosh’s Bluff on the Tombigbee, in what was at that time a part of Georgia, but is now within the limits of the .’State of Alabama. He attended school in McIntosh County, Georgia, -and then in Savannah, later still at a celebrated academy on Long Island, New York, was graduated at Princeton College, New Jersey, and re- ‘ Turning to Savannah studied law in that city. He held many important offices, viz. : in the legislature, in Congress as representative and senator, and as governor of Georgia. It was in this latter capacity that he successfully maintained the rights and honor of Georgia in a controversy with the general government concerning the Creek lands.
Troup county is bounded on the north by Coweta county, and on the northwest by Heard, on the east by Meriwether, on the south by Harris, and on the west by the State of Alabama. The Chattahoochee river, entering the county on the northwest, flows toward its southwest corner, from which point it becomes the boundary line between Alabama and Georgia. There are also numerous creeks, tributaries of the Chattahoochee, among the chief of which are Yellow Jacket and Wehadka.
The land is rolling, well-watered and productive, embracing the varieties of soil peculiar to most of the counties of the Middle Georgia belt. With proper tillage much of it will yield to the acre: corn, 15 bushels; oats, 20; wheat, from 10 to 15 bushels; rye, 12 bushels; barley, 20 bushels; Irish potatoes, 100, and sweet potatoes, 125 bushels; field-peas, 20 bushels; ground-peas, 25 bushels; seed cotton, 1,000 pounds; hay made from bermuda or crab-grass, or clover, 3,000 pounds; corn fodder, 300 pounds; shredded corn, 3,000 pounds; sorghum forage, about the same; sorghum syrup, 200 gallons. The red lands of the county are fertile, producing, besides all the crops named above, a great variety of garden vegetables. Melons and berries are plentiful and of the best quality. Luscious grapes are raised for home consumption.
The lands are also adapted to each-growing and to pews, plums and cherries. Considerable attention is paid to the improvement of the breeds of cattle, both for the dairy and for beef. Nearly one-fourth of the cows belong to the higher grades. In 1890 Troup county had 5,077 cattle, of which 196 were working oxen and 2,306 were milk-cows, producing 695,265 gallons of milk, from which were made 224,192 pounds of but- tor. The domestic fowls numbered 70,773, and produced, 162,055 dozens of eggs. From the bee-hives were collected 20,539 pounds of honey. The county had 879 horses, 2,152 mules, 4 donkeys, and 8,526 swine. There were 223 sheep yielding 462 pounds of wool. There is excellent timber available for manufacturing purposes, such as yellow pine, oak, maple, hickory, sweet-gum, poplar, etc.
LaGrange, the county site, is a growing city seventy-one miles southwest of Atlanta, The LaGrange district, which includes the city, contains 6,297 inhabitants, and in the corporate limits the city has a population of 4,274. At a height of 850 feet above sea level and with a natural drainage that insures freedom from malaria, LaGrange enjoys an excellent reputation for healthfulness. Beautiful flower gardens are found in all portions of the city, among the most noted being “The Terraces” or Ferrell Garden, at its western limit. The streets are wide and beautifully shaded with water oaks and elms. It is a place of great culture and refinement, the seat of two noted colleges for ladies; the Southern Female (Baptist) College and the LaGrange Female College, owned by the North Georgia Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South; also of the Park High school for boys, and several other private schools. It has also an excellent public school system.
There are two Methodist, two Baptist, one Episcopalian and two Presbyterian churches. An excellent system of water-works furnishes abundance of water for all purposes. The streets are lighted by electricity. There are two banks with a combined capital and surplus of $300,000. There are three cotton-mills owned and operated by home people, with an aggregate of 454 looms, 31,600 spindles and a combined capital of $532,400. They manufacture sheeting, shirting, drills, osnaburgs, duck, and a variety of white cotton goods. These factories are the La- Grange Mills, the Dixie Mill and the Troup Factory. Other manufactories are: a cotton oil-mill, of large capacity, a ginnery, a guano factory, a foundry and machine shop, two planing-mills and variety workshops, two buggy and wagon factories, a grist-mill and a successful creamery and cheese factory. Through the work of the creamery there are now (1901) more than 300 Jersey cows in the vicinity of LaGrange. More than fifty farmers furnish milk to this creamery and some of them make as much as $165.00 a month. The butter from this creamery took the World’s Fair prize at the Paris exposition of 1900, and won the Biltmore ‘prize at the dairy exposition held the same year in Atlanta.
Surrounding LaGrange are many elegant suburban homes, stock farms, dairy farms, orchards and vineyards. The farms are well supplied with wood and water. Bermuda grass furnishes pasturage for nine months of the year, and on some of the farms yields from three to six tons to the acre. Well located farm lands can be purchased at from $10 to $20 per acre Good manufacturing sites are abundant. The second largest place in Troup County is the thriving city of West Point, 87 miles from Atlanta, with a population of 1,797 in its corporate limits and m the whole West Point district, 3,086. The city owns its water-works and electric light plant, and has an excellent public school system. It is well supplied with churches of the Methodist, Baptist and Presbyterians. It has three cotton-mills with an aggregate of 1,180 looms and 44,000 spindles, and a monthly pay-roll of $20,000. They manufacture duck, sateens, sheetings, drills and osniaburgs. West Point has also a cotton oil-mill, a brick plant, a tannery, an iron foundry and machine shops.
The town of Hogansville, with a population of 893 in the corporate limits, or 2,663 in the Hogansville district, which includes the town, has a cotton factory, a cotton oil-mill, a brick plant, a guano factory, a harness factory, grist-mill and ginnery. There are good schools and Methodist, Baptist and Presbyterian churches.
Other post offices in Troup county are Antioch, Long Cane, Asbury, Troup Factory, Vernon and Mountville. The Mountville district has 1,918 inhabitants, of whom 224 live in the town of Mountville.
All Troup county is well supplied with churches and schools. In the 36 public schools for white children there is an average attendance of 1,009 pupils, and in the 40 for colored, 1,314 pupils. The two colleges in LaGrange and the Park High school are for whites exclusively.
The white and colored races in every county of Georgia attend separate schools. The county is traversed from northeast to southwest by the Atlanta and West Point Railroad, and from east to west by the Macon and Birmingham Railroad.’ These two roads cross each other at LaGrange. On the first named are Hogansville and West Point, on the latter, Mountville.
According to the United States census for 1900 there were ginned in Troup county 21,550 bales of upland cotton during the season of 1890- 1900.
The area of Troup county is 434 square miles, or 277,760 acres. The population by the census of 1900 was 24,002, a gain of 3,279 over 1890. According to the report of the Commissioner of Education for 1900, the school fund was $15,672.47. bonds, $105,965; cotton manufactories, $329,800; household and kitchen furniture, $151,535; farm and other animals, $178,240; plantation and mechanical tools, $46,997; watches, jewelry, etc., $14,131; value of all other property, $146,817; real estate, $2,013,788; personal estate, $1,894,328. Aggregate value of whole property, $3,908,116.
Property returned by colored taxpayers: number of acres, 8,659; value of land, $35,491; city property, $38,996; money, etc., $865; merchandise, $280; household and kitchen furniture, $15,129; watches, jewelry, etc., $301; farm and other animals, $29,108; plantation and mechanical tools, $6,255; value of all other property, $1,401. Aggregate value of whole property, $131,871.
The tax returns for 1901 show an increase of $273,980 in the value of all property as compared with the returns of 1900. Population of Troup county by sex and color, according to the census of 1900: white males, 4,267; white females, 4,401; total white, 8,668; colored males, 7,445; colored females, 7,889; total colored, 15,334.
Population of the city of LaGrange by sex and color, according to the census of 1900: white males, 1,179; white females, 1,368; total white, 2,547; colored males, 767; colored females, 960; total colored, 1,727. Total population of LaGrange, 4,274.
Domestic animals in Troup county in barns and enclosures, not on farms or ranges, June 1, 1900: 116 calves, 8 steers, 2 bulls, 298 dairy cows, 324 horses, 33 mules, 3 donkeys, 6 sheep, 567 swine, 10 goats. About six or eight miles west of LaGrange, on the west bank of the Chattahoochee river, where the Wehadka creek empties into that stream, there once stood a village belonging to the Muscogee, a tribe of the Creek Indians. This was the meeting point where the marauding parties met to plan some murderous foray upon the unprotected settlers of the frontier. It was after one of these predatory excursions that the warriors of the nation had assembled to celebrate the Green Corn Dance preparatory to another bloody raid.
A few hundred men. under the command of Major Adams, who had volunteered to strike a blow at the savages, had arrived one evening in 1793. within a few miles of the river. While they were in waiting for night, so that under cover of the darkness, they might surprise the enemy, Major Adams, accompanied by a private soldier named Hill, started to swim the Chattahoochee in order to reconnoiter the position of the enemy. Hill, who came near being drowned, was rescued by the Major, who then, after encountering many perils, gained the desired information and returned to his command. Leading his men across the river at a favorable point, he completely surprised the Indians, of whom scarcely a warrior escaped. As far as possible the women and children were spared. The Indian town was completely destroyed. For many years posts still standing in the midst of the saplings that had grown up among the ruins pointed out to the traveler the place where formerly stood the Burnt Village.
Source: Georgia, Agriculture, Industries Georgia, Historical and Industrial By Obediah B., Stevens, Georgia Dept. of Agriculture, Robert F. Wright Published by G.W. Harrison, State Printer, 1901 Original from the University of California
Online Publication: This information was donated to Troup County, Georgia Genealogy by C. W. Barnum.
Earliest known family members in Troup County:
Thomas EVANS and wife Martha BROOKS, Chatham Co., NC to Mountville, Troup Co., GA, 1827. Founder of Mountville Methodist Church.
Thomas HINES and wife Lucy HIGHTOWER, Chatham Co., NC to Mountville, Troup Co., GA, probably via Upson and Laurens Counties, GA.
Elizabeth HINES, probable mother of Thomas, was an 1827 Winner, Original Land Owners [Elizabeth Hines of Laurens County, Widow of Revolutionary Soldier, LL 251, 6th District].
William REYNOLDS and wife Mary Elizabeth YOUNG, Greene Co., GA to Antioch, Troup Co., GA, before 1840; later to Fredonia, Chambers Co., AL.
Thomas WINN and wife Nancy GREER, Greene Co., GA to Antioch, Troup Co., GA, before 1837.