Here's some wonderful information ...and I'm so grateful for Lynn for typing up this to share with everyone! >Date: Wed, 09 Jan 2002 22:08:19 -0500 >From: "Lynn B. Cunningham" <lcunnin1@bellsouth.net> >X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.79 [en]C-NSCPCD (Win98; U) >X-Accept-Language: en,pdf >To: Virginia Crilley <varcsix@hot.rr.com> >Subject: Lost City of Newnan > >Virginia, > >I am sending a story that was paper clipped in the front of Pike County >Deeds and Mortgages, Book A Index, 1823-1826 Microfilm Roll No. RHS >3357. I don't know what category to put it in except 'Land Records.' > >Lynn > > > From Pike County Deeds and Mortgages, Book A Index, 1823-1826 >Microfilm Roll No. RHS 3357 >The Microfilm shows a typed page paper-clipped in the front of the book. >It reads: >The Lost Town of Newnan >Pike County was created by legislative enactment in the autumn of 1822. >Its boundaries extended from Monroe County on the East to the Flint River >on the West, and from the Northern limits of Griffin on the North to >several miles below Thomaston on the South. Thus the county was more than >twice as large as now. >Early in 1823 the county was organized, and, after the election of >officers, the first work of the Inferior Court Judges was to locate the >County seat. There was much controversy over this, as those living south >of Pike Mountains wanted it on their side of the mountains while those >living north of the mountains wanted it on their side. The matter was >finally settled by selecting the center of north and south, which was Lot >No. 202, four miles south of the present town of Zebulon. >This lot was bought and laid out unto town lots and was named Newnan in >honor of Gen, Daniel Newnan. Soon the axe, hammer and saw were heard in >this wilderness country. In a short time there were several stores, a >hotel and a temporary courthouse. Dwellings were rising on various >streets. From the flow of immigration it was a place of considerable >trade. We are told that the Indians from Beyond the Flint River would come >here by the hundreds to barter their furs, hides, etc. It soon put on city >airs and had a council and a marshal. >But, alas, the seeds of dissatisfaction sown in the mountain controversy >began to bear fruit, resulting in the citizens south of the mountains >getting from the legislature in 1824 a new county called Upson. As this >county took most of the land below the mountains it threw Pike's County >seat too far from the center of the county. So in 1825, Land Lot 227, four >miles further north, was selected as the County seat and called Zebulon. >Soon most of the inhabitants of Newnan moved to the new County seat and >gradually Pike County's first town became one of the lost towns of >Georgia. Now nothing remains there to tell of "a glory that is past" >except a few old wells that couldn't very well be moved. >Handwritten below story: >Deed to Lot # 227 - Page 389 Virginia Crilley