Ellaville, Georgia

Ellaville is a city in Schley County, Georgia, United States. The population was 1,812 at the 2010 census. The city is the county seat of Schley County.

Ellaville is part of the Americus micropolitan statistical area.

History

A town named Pond Town was established in 1812 along the stage coach in the area that is now the location of the Ellaville City Cemetery. The area was then part of the lands belonging to the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. In 1821, after the Treaty of Indian Springs the area became part of the state of Georgia. In 1826, it served as temporary county seat for Lee County upon the creation of the then vast county. Pond Town soon became a lively town noted for horse racing and whiskey. In 1831, the area became part of Sumter County.

Ellaville was founded in 1857 as county seat of the newly formed Schley County. It was incorporated as a town in 1859. The community was named after the daughter of a first settler.

Lynchings

• The hanging of Charles Blackman occurred in Ellaville, Georgia, on January 25, 1889
• In January 1911 a white man died in a Black owned store. He was taken for his own safety to Columbus for three months but when he returned three months later a mob 200 strong lynched Dawson Jordan, Charles Pickett, and Murray Burton as well as burning down three black lodges, a church and a school.
• October 1912, a prisoner seized from the Sumter County sheriff near Oglethorpe was hung from a bridge and shot dead
• June 1913, twenty-four-year-old Will Redding was dragged from the Ellaville's city jail strung up on a street corner and riddled with bullets.
• Will Jones was lynched in Ellaville, Georgia by a white mob on February 13, 1922.

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 3.2 square miles (8.3 km²), all land.

Demographics

As of the 2020 United States census, there were 1,595 people, 610 households, and 438 families residing in the city.

Education

Schley County School District

The Schley County School District holds pre-school to grade twelve, and consists of one elementary school and one middle-high school. The district has 66 full-time teachers and over 1,126 students.

• Schley County Elementary School
• Schley Middle High School

Infrastructure

Ellaville is served by U.S. Route 19, Georgia State Route 26 and Georgia State Route 153.

Notable people

• Charles Frederick Crisp, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives
• William J. Sears, Congressman from Florida
• Brent Cobb, singer
• Quentin Fulks, campaign manager
• Caylee Hammack, singer
• Blaire Erskine, comedian
• Rosa Lee Ingram, subject of 1940's Civil Rights struggle against unfair trials and sentencing in the Jim Crow Era.

References

• "Say Official Has Failed To Do Duty In Lynching Accusations". Americus Times-Recorder. Americus, Sumter, Georgia: Times Pub. Co. February 17, 1922. pp. 1–8. ISSN 2768-6922. OCLC 21134729. Retrieved February 12, 2022.
• Buchanan, Nichole (June 10, 2020). "An Americus Lynching: Part 1: Facing South on Cotton Avenue". americustimesrecorder.com. Retrieved February 13, 2022.
• Grant, Donald Lee (2001). The Way it was in the South: The Black Experience in Georgia. University of Georgia Press. ISBN 9780820323299. - Total pages: 624

1. Schley County, Georgia
2. Buena Vista and Ellaville Railroad
3. List of Florida railroads
4. Rosa Lee Ingram
5. Charles F. Crisp
6. Quentin Fulks
7. Hanging of Charles Blackman
8. 2002 Georgia gubernatorial election
9. List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state)
10. 2000 United States presidential election in Georgia
11. Oglethorpe, Georgia
12. Montezuma, Georgia
13. Schley Middle High School
14. Caylee Hammack
15. WLEL
16. Butler, Georgia
17. Georgia State Route 271
18. Georgia State Route 228
19. List of counties in Georgia
20. Tornado outbreak of December 5, 1954