Prior to 1802 this section of Georgia was settled by the Creek Indians. Treaties made between 1802-1805 took lands from the Creek to Georgia The land was distributed by lottery to the citizens of Georgia. Towns and counties were formed. Soon the Macon and Brunswick Railroad came and even more towns sprung up. In 1870, a new county was laid out largely from Laurens County with small portions from Pulaski, Montgomery and Telfair.

 

During the 1870s the Georgia Land and Lumber Company, which bought more than 300,000 acres of land rich in longleaf pine for less than ten cents an acre in 1868, began to harvest timber which displaced farmers who were evicted by the company. This started a series of court cases, assassinations arranged by the company and imprisonments. Farmers started to use chemical fertilizers which shifted from growing pine to cotton. But the boll weevil soon came and soon the farmers started to grow a variety of crops such as watermelon, peanuts, pecans and livestock.

 

William Stuckey, a pecan farmer in Eastman started to sell his wife's pecan candies in the 1930s and soon built a large national company company called Stuckey Candy Company.

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Locations in Dodge County

 

Amoskeag -

Beehive -

Chauncey - a city that was formed around station number 12 on the Macon and Brunswick Railroad.

Chester - named for Chester NY, an incorporated place in 1902. Located in Northern Dodge County.

Copeland -

Cox -

Dempsey -

Dubois -

Eastman - County seat. Eastman grew as a station of the Macon and Brunswick Railroad which was built in the area in 1869. Eastman was originally named Levison and renamed Eastman in 1871. Eastman was incorporated as a town in 1873 and as a city in 1905. Named for W P Eastman who presented the county with a courthouse with W. E. Dodge. First mayor was Ira R Foster.

Empire - Designated as a town in 1911. A sawmill was established there.

Fitzgibbon -

Frazier -

Giddens -

Godwinsville -

Gresston -

Hopewell -

Horton -

Inglewood -

Leon -

Long View -

Milan - a city on the border of Dodge and Telfair counties.

Missler -

Plainfield - a rural farming community which began in 1909. Post office opened in 1909, closed in 2002. Jail was built in 1910, but was destroyed not long after. The Bank of Plainfield operated from 1911 until 1921. A cotton gin and warehouse was built there in 1909. Plainfield Baptist Church was organized there in 1913.

Rawlins -

Rhine - A town that sprang up in 1886 around the Seaboard Airline Railroad. It is in the southern part of Dodge County. In an agricultural part of Dodge County. The first general store in Rhine was owned by G W and D M Ryals. A turpentine still was started by three brothers named Robitzsch who came from North Carolina. For many years the land in the area was owned by J M Swymer. Another pioneer settler was James Reaves.

Roddy -

Sigurd -

Suomi -

Yonker/Yonkers -