In the beginnng there was the British Province of Georgia, chartered on April 21, 1732 named for King George II. At that time, Georgia's area included parts of what is now known as Alabama and Mississippi. 

Georgia became the 13th British Colony on February 12, 1733 and the 4th State of the United States on January 2, 1788.

Georgia turned out to be one of the original REBEL Colonies, rebeling first against the British and later, as a Confederate State, against the Union.  Georgia was not readmitted to the Union until July 15, 1870.

Out of the Land lottery of 1821 the "State of Dooly" was born. That is a term I found in a news article by Sarah C. Summers. She wrote for "The Area Locator/Greater Cordele Area". 

My mother saved a lot of her articles, all of which I have read with great interest. "Dooly County-Mother of Crisp" was the title of another  of Sarah Summer's articles.  Most of the facts on this page came from her writings.

The War Between the States found the Georgia Governor, Joseph E. Brown(1821-1894) owning the land which is now Cordele. He had purchased the land for $50,000, Confederate money from Mr. William Hamilton. His home was built where the old Suwannee Hotel used to be. The Suwanee Hotel burned several years ago and was replaced with The Suwannee House apartments. Governor Brown and his family called the home The Dooly County Place and  was probably called that because they lived in the Governor's Mansion in Milledgeville at that time.

When Union General, Sherman, performed his renowned march from Atlanta through Georgia to the East Coast, Governor Brown took the Seal of Georgia and, I imagine, important records from the Capitol in Milledgeville to his "Dooly County Place" in order to save them from destruction by Sherman's soldiers.

Following The War, Governor Brown sold the "Dooly County Place" for $3500.00 and things began to happen. Settlers started businesses  and the railroads came.

With intersecting railroads (the Georgia, Southern, Florida and the Savannah, Americus, and Montgomery), in the southern portion of Dooly, business was thriving and a little community had developed into a small town.

In 1889 Cordele was incorporated and named for Miss Cordelia Hawkins of Americus,  Ga.  She was the daughter of Col. Samuel Hawkins, president of the Savannah, Americus and Montgomery Railroad.  She married T.Furlow Gatewood of Americus.

On April 12, 1894 a spark from a locomotive ignited a fire that claimed the Cordele Machine Shop and Planing Mill as well as the train depot and several other wooden buildings. Damages were acessed at $32,500. That was a lot of money in 1894.

After about 15 years the business leaders of Cordele figured they could save a lot of time by not having to travel the 9 miles to tend to business at the County Court House in Vienna. Remember, this was the days of horse and buggy, mule and wagon and Mutt and Jeff. Any one living in the southern part of the county had  twice as far to go.

Crisp County was formed on August 17th, 1905 out of Dooly County  and was named for the Honorable Charles F. Crisp of Americus.  Crisp County could now build it's own court house.

The stately Crisp County Courthouse was completed in 1907 and served the community well until 1950. It was retired at only 47 years old and demolished to make way for "new and improved".

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