Valdosta was only three years old in 1863, and many of the men of the town
and county had been called into service only a year after the town came into
existence, hence the majority of the buildings were of a rather crude type.
The court house was a rough unpainted frame building, unfinished on the
inside but well lighted with windows, with a door leading into the court
room and another into the small office of the clerk. It was situated on the
corner of East Central Avenue and Ashley Streets. The building was also used
as a school house at that time. Across Patterson Street from the court
house, lawyers William Dasher and Richard Peeples had their two offices; the
post office was in this block also. On the corner of Ashley and Valley
streets, near where the first brick jail was later erected, was the jail
constructed of hewed logs. Approximately a dozen one and two-story stores
stood on Patterson Street from the court house to the railroad. Mr. S. Smith
had the largest on the southwest corner of Patterson and Central. Doctors
Briggs and Rambo had their offices and a small drugstore at the alley on the
west side of the 100 block, and Tom Griffin operated a general store on the
corner of Patterson and Hill. Across Patterson on the east side Wilson Boyd
made photographs upstairs over a store; larger frame buildings were on
Patterson on the north side of the alley. On Ashley Street there were three
store buildings on the east side. Mr. Josh Griffin owned the store on the
northeast corner of Ashley and Hill, the other two opened as barrooms just
after the war. On the west side were two buildings. In one Mr. Tom Crawford
opened a harness store in 1865 and the other was used by the Caldwell and
Parsons families as a home. On the north side of Hill Avenue between
Patterson and Ashley was another store. The Holton Hotel was around the
corner on Central Avenue near McKey Place.
The various church denominations first met in the court house, using the
building in rotation, and everybody attended church every Sunday. In 1865
the Baptists build a church on Valley Street in the middle of the block
between Ashley and Patterson which was soon destroyed by a storm. In 1868 or
1869 they erected a church on East Central Avenue. Mr. William Goldwire was
the pastor. Within a few years the Presbyterians converted a building on
Hill Avenue between Lee Street and McKey Place into a meeting house. The
Methodists first built on Valley Street behind the present First Methodist
Church. Mr. H. W. Sharpe was the pastor.
Among the refugees who came to Lowndes County and Valdosta during those
years were the Myddletons from Liberty County, Langs from Camden County,
Bessants and DeLyons from Charleston, Ralstons, Dicksons, Charltons,
Butlers, Conleys, O'Conners, Mays, Gays, and Jacksons from Savannah, Rileys,
Barnwells, Pritchards from Barnwell and Beaufort, South Carolina, Stewarts
and Downs from Darien, Archy Smiths from Marietta, the E. V. Johnsons from
Kingston, Mitchels, Jarmons, Hicks, Hamiltons and Forces from Rome. The
Parsons and Caldwell families came from Atlanta, the Peacocks came from
Vicksburg, Mississippi, and the Wilsons came from Effingham County.
There were many names now well known in the county and this section of
Georgia prominently connected with the growth and development of Valdosta.
Some of these had lived in old Troupville in the earlier days and others
came in after Valdosta was founded: Dr. William Ashley, Capt. Henry Briggs,
Mr. Albert Converse, Sr., Col. Morgan, Capt. Moses Smith, Capt. Patterson,
Mr. S. Smith, Messrs. Tom and Josh Griffin, Col. Richard Peeples, Thompson
Peeples, Mr. James Goldwire, Dr. Ellis, Mr. Fred Ellis, Tompey Roberts, Col.
William Dasher, Col. Baker, Messrs. Henry and William Smith, George Roberts,
Dr. John Walker, Dr. Pritchard, Judge R.W. Phillips, Tobe Zipperer, Jordan
Tucker, William Proser, Aldine D. Boone, the Parramores, Pendletons,
Varnedoes, McKeys, Burtons, Langs, Dashers, Lanes, Rawlstons, Carmichaels
and Allens.
Some of the county pioneers were: Christian Herman Dasher, John Wisenbaker,
James Wisenbaker, James Burgsteiner, Bird Hightower, Frank Jones, Joseph
Harelsteiner, J. A. Dasher, Sr., Andrew Jackson Dasher and William
Wisenbaker.
Many of Valdosta's early pioneers are buried in Cat Creek
Cemetery on the outskirts of modern Valdosta. Common surnames are etched on
the fading tombstones that dot the landscape of this ancient burial ground.
After the American Civil War, well over one hundred African Americans,
families of farmers, craftsmen, and laborers, emigrated from Lowndes County
to Arithington, Liberia, Africa in 1871 and 1872, looking for a better life.
This was made possible with the support of the American Colonization
Society. The first group, which left in 1871, was led by Jefferson Bracewell,
and the second group was led by Aaron Miller.
In November 1902, the Harris Nickel-Plate Circus' prize elephant, Gypsy,
went on a rampage and killed her trainer James O'Rourke. After terrorizing
the town for a couple of hours, she ran off to Cherry Creek, north of
Valdosta. Gypsy was chased by Police Chief Calvin Dampier and a posse. Gypsy
was killed by a shot from a Krag-Jørgensen rifle and buried on-site; James O'Rourke was buried in
Sunset Hill Cemetery in Valdosta.
The county's
courthouse was built around 1905 and is listed on the National Register of
Historic Places.
Valdosta was once the center of long-staple
cotton growing in the United States until the boll weevil finally killed the
crop in 1917 and agriculture turned to tobacco and pine timber.
The Valdosta Daily Times has twice reported that the world's second
Coca-Cola bottling plant was at one time located in Valdosta.
The local economy received an important boost when Interstate 75 was
routed and built through the area. Many vacationers on their way to Florida
found Valdosta a convenient "last stop" on their way to Walt Disney World
and the Orlando area, especially those coming from the Midwest and Ontario,
Canada.
