Macon-Taylor-Schley County GaArchives News.....Town of Lanier January 6, 1938
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Keith Hill khill90444@etcmail.com March 7, 2018, 8:01 am

The Butler Herald January 6, 1938
THE BUTLER HERALD, BUTLER, GEORGIA, JANUARY 6, 1938
FIELDS OF COTTON NOW STAND ON SITE OF VANISHED TOWN
Coming of Railroads Doomed City Of Lanier, Once Thriving Macon County Seat
(By Mrs. J. M. Moore)

  Montezuma, Ga., Dec. 29. — Sam Harp, Macon county planter and business man, 
stood watching the plow-hands turning under the dead cotton stalks in his
fields which comprise a thousand acres on the west bank of the Flint river
eight miles north of Oglethorpe.
  He drew the back of one tanned hand across his eyes. “Sometimes,” he 
said, “in spite of myself, I see it as it was. Not in my time, but as my father 
knew it as a boy. This tract, undistinguishable from the acres that join it on 
all sides, was a town. We are standing on the lost, town of Lanier.”
  And, in spite of yourself, you saw it. The long main street with its Colonial
homes, yards fragrant and colorful with cape Jessamine crepe myrtle, Cherokee
rose, magnolias and wisteria.
  One hundred years ago today, Dec. 29, 1937, the town of Lanier, thriving
little city, reached by boats on the Flint river and stage roads going East and
West and North and South was made the county seat of the newly incorporated
Macon county.  The town was named for C. A. Lanier, Esq., a relative of Robert
Lanier, father of the Georgia poet.
  The town seemed naturally destined to become a busy center of trade,
situated, as it was, in the richest cotton country of the state on a leading
road, with a ferry connecting it with another great highway on the east bank of
the river.
  Social life in Lanier was typical Southern living in that era.  Men of state-wide
prominence and women of grace and refinement brought cultured customs to the country
village; silver, damask and fine china adorned the tables on which were served up
the delicacies of the day, the wild turkeys, the whole roast hams, the home
wide prominence and women of grace and refinement brought cultured customs to 
the country village; silver, damask and fine china adorned the tables on which 
were served up the delicacies of the day, the wild turkeys, the whole roast 
hams, the home-made wines and beaten biscuits.
  On March 20, 1856, Jas. D. Frederick, later a major in the Confederate Army, 
and father of Mrs. Jas. E Hays of Montezuma, Georgia’s state historian, tells
in his diary of going from his home in Lanier to Oglethorpe, where he was
invited to dinner at the elegant and hospitable home of Col. G. W. Fish.
  Maj. Frederick wrote in his diary: "Went and found Messrs Miller, Blandsford, 
lawyers; Simri Rose, editor; L. M. Felton, legislator; Ham Felton and myself, 
farmers. Col. Fish was at the head of the table and Mrs. Fish at the foot.  
Directly after entering the house, we were invited to the dining room in the 
lower story, to drink of wine and brandy.  I took wine.  Back in the parlor, we 
examined plays of Shakespeare, two volumes costing $140.  Then to dinner.  
There were three glasses at each plate, one for champaigne, one for wine and a 
third for water.  Soup constituted the first course, then wine, then we were 
helped to meats, turkey, ham, rice, etc.  This course through, champaigne.”
  The Fish home still stands and is the present home of Mr. and Mrs. Hugh
Shealy.
  In the memory of Mrs. Minnie V. Cheney, late resident of Montezuma, who spent
her childhood in Lanier, the school of Lanier, in 1866 went to Macon and hired 
a Dr. Link and his wife to teach literature and music to the young people. 
Mrs. Link had been a Guttenberger, a name associated with music and musicians
in Georgia to this day. Mrs. Cheney, mother of Mrs. Rufus Forehand, librarian
of the Montezuma Carnegie Library, used to tell of a trip from Lanier to
Charleston, S. C., in 1864, when, they paid $30 a night for hotel rooms.
  Lanier gave many proud names to the state, among them those of Giles Corbett,
Greer, Frederick, Law, Underwood, Miller, Lockwood, Lowe, Robinson, Felton,
Brooks, Cook, Dawson, Carson, Flournoy, Schley, Whitchard, Boiffeullet,
Maffett, Hill, Jolly, Wells, Ogburn, Murray, Killebrew, Jordan, Dixon, Walters,
Bledsoe, Cheney, McKellar, Thistlewood, Montfort and Jesup.  These are just a
few of the many descendants of whom still live in Macon county. 
  It was the whistle of a cumbersome, wood-burning locomotive that proved to be 
the swan-song of Lanier.  The Central of Georgia railroad extended its lines to 
Oglethorpe, and increased facilities for transportation.  Lanier began to 
dwindle from that very hour.  The court house was moved to Iowe, later to 
Oglethorpe, the Methodist church to Pine Level.  The Fredericks moved to 
Marshallville, the Greers to Oglethorpe, and other families to Butler and Fort 
Valley. In 15 years the site of the town was bare of buildings, the shrubs and 
trees were choked in the weeds, and the encroaching plow-hand furrowed the
main, Street. Occasionally someone turns up a coin, an old spoon or a nail.
Lanier is lost as if it had never existed.


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