Ben Hill County Georgia    Town of Fitzgerald

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by 
Barbara Winge barbarawinge@yahoo.com

http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm Georgia Table of Contents:

HISTORY OF FITZGERALD, COUNTY SEAT OF BEN HILL COUNTY, GEORGIA

     Fitzgerald, Georgia, has the distinction of being one of the southern colonies founded after The War Between the States for the veterans of the Union Army in 1896.  Other towns sharing that feature are Lynn Haven, Florida, 1907, and St. Cloud, Florida, 1907.

     A former Union Army drummer boy, Philander H. Fitzgerald, of Indianapolis, Indiana, had become the newspaper editor of the "American Tribune,"  and a pension attorney for the Union veterans.  He envisioned creating a colony in the South where the men could live out their days in a warm climate.  He contacted the Governor of Georgia, William J. Northen, who was known for his progressive ideas for agriculture, and requested his assitance in forming a Union colony.  When Governor Northen left office in 1894, he became the manager of the Georgia Immigration and Investment Bureau and was instrumental in helping Fitzgerald obtain 50,000 acres of land in what was then Irwin and Wilcox counties.

     Fiizgerald organized the American Tribune Soldiers' Colony Company.  He then informed the former Union soldiers through his newspaper that the land was available for purchase at $3.50 per acre.   27,000 "old soldiers" and their wives made their way to Georgia by all modes of transportation.

     As an honor to their founder, the new colony named their  little town Fitzgerald.   Then in 1906, a county was created from the acres taken from Irwin and Wilcox counties.  At first it was thought to name the young county after Governor Northen but after much thought, the honor of name sake went to the reconstruction statesman, Banjamin Hill.  And the county was called Ben Hill County.  

[Contributed by Barbara Walker Winge]



Note:
Adiel Sherwood, A GAZETTEER OF THE STATE OF GEORGIA, Washington City,
Printed by P. Force, 1837,  pp. 255-256.
APPENDIX:  BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES
   "The author conceived that a short biographical sketch of the
individuals after whom the several counties were named, would furnish an
instructive and pleasing appendage to his topographical work...
   Acquainted with the intimate friends of some of the 'venerable dead,'
he has been furnished with sufficient materials to enlarge on their
character...
   There are in the State ninety counties (book printed in 1837, presently
in 2001, there are 159 counties)..."


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