Old Town Plantation

Old Town Plantation is a Georgia historical marker in Jefferson County, dedicated 1980.

Ga 17, about 8 miles southeast of Louisville.

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The area now called Old Town Plantation is shown on maps dating to the early 18th century. It was called Ogeechee Old Town because of the ancient Creek Indian town that Carolina traders visited before Georgia was founded in 1733. George Galphin of South Carolina received a royal grant of 1,400 acres here in 1767 and established an Indian trading post, cow pens and plantation called Old Town. Under the Galphin, Forsyth and Fitzsimons families the plantation grew to 5,000 acres. The extensive plantation complex was destroyed during Sherman's March to the Sea in 1864. The land was jointly owned by Linton Stephens and W.W. Simpson from 1860-1876 when they sold it to W.D. Grant. He farmed the plantation with convict labor under the notorious Convict Lease System. In 1895, H.M. Comer, President of the Central of Georgia R.R., bought the plantation. The extant buildings including two main residences, 25 outbuildings and a grist mill were built by the Comers between 1895 and 1910.

Maps this old were drawn largely by eye, so places on them can sit miles from where they really are. The pin is ours and marks the marker's location today.

TodayHistorical map

Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.

David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

Historical maps covering this location

1746 · A Map of the British Empire in America. (Sheet 10). (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1764 · Carte de la Nouvelle Georgie (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1778 · Parte Orientale della Florida, della Giorgia, e Carolina Meridionale. Fogl. XI (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1795 · State of South Carolina. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1816 · Georgia. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)

Georgia, 1816, covering the location of Old Town Plantation, with a pin at the marker's coordinates — Georgia, 1816, covering this location. David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries. The pin is ours, placed from the marker's coordinates.

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What that marker records spans 1777 to 1789, overlapping William Gabby's years there.

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This historical marker is part of the Georgia Historical Marker Program and was erected by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. Marker texts and locations come from the Society's own marker database.

Old Town Plantation

Historical maps covering this location

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