Culloden, Monroe County, Georgia

Once upon a time...Isn't that the way every story starts?   I once worked in a nursing home as a social services director.  It was my duty to discover the history of and document the lives of the residents of our nursing home while they were there.  From a medical standpoint, I was meant to record the facts so that anyone who read the notes would have a better understanding of the medical history and social background of each resident.  As a frustrated writer and a person who is just naturally curious, I enjoyed this part of my job a great deal.   I found that seemingly ordinary people had led the most extraordinary lives.  I felt well rewarded the day a member of the licensure team that came to inspect the facility told me, "I feel I know these people after reading your notes."

In searching for family, it was inevitable that I'd come to know the history of the area where they once lived.  Since my search started with a relative who had lived in Culloden, Georgia in the mid 1800's, I discovered a great deal about the town itself.   I was fascinated by the past of this tiny little town.  As seen today you might well believe that it was always just a small town and  obviously a 'has been' that had seen better days.  But Culloden is astonishingly rich in history.

Culloden, the oldest settlement in Monroe County,  was settled first as Creek Indian territory in 1739  by Scottish highlanders who migrated from the east to what was then Indian territory.  The town was just off old Indian trails, and despite some minor re-routing these trails are now U.S highways 341 and 74.    In 1780,  this trading post settlement was named after a local merchant and Scotsman, William Culloden, and initially called Cullodenville. William Culloden established the trading post and stage coach stop on the site.   There's an old well downtown that has a sign stating it is a former stagecoach stop for water.  A post office was established in 1825 in the town.  In 1887, the town was incorporated as the city of Culloden.

In the 1820's, when the negotiations with the Indian tribes pushed the boundary lines westward, the United States started holding land lotteries to populate the areas.  Land grants were given to former soldiers, widows and orphans first.  Those who won these lotteries often sold them to others.  Culloden quickly became a busy and prosperous community during the early 1800's.   Many wealthy Virginia families who were slave owners moved to the area and established farms in what became a rich agricultural area.

The first  Methodist Episcopal church was established in 1809 and was later rebuilt in 1832 and again in 1892 using brick from the 1832 building, all of which were made on site.   In 1832 the church boasted four circuit rider preachers, including my great-great-great grandfather,  John F. Poole.

The Culloden Male and Female Academy held classes in the bottom story of the Methodist-Episcopal Church while the church used the upper story.

In the 1830's there were three academies for education begun in the founding days of Monroe County, all in the Cullodenville area.  The Culloden Academy in 1830, the Culloden Female Academy in 1834 and the Culloden Male and Female Academy in 1837.   These learning institutions were just the first of many founded in Culloden and some of the founders and teachers were famous men, among them Professor John Darby, who compiled a comprehensive botanical record of the southeastern U.S. states.  Professor Darby later founded the Sigourney Institute in Cullodenville in 1848.  He was a famed botanist and chemist as well as president of several well known colleges such as Mercer University and Auburn University.  William Seward had a stint as a teacher in one of the Culloden academies before he made his career in politics.

The town of Cullodenville produced a large number of statesmen, lawyers, doctors, educators,  and financiers  who made a mark on the history of the state and the nation.   It seems a disproportionate number of men came from this town, or stopped in the town to work before moving on to bigger and greater things.   It is truly mind boggling when you see the town as it is today with a population of about 230 to try to even imagine the number and variety of businesses, the names of famous men who lived, worked or were educated there.

Newspapers of the early and mid 1800s  recount the visitation of a circus, as well as a famed painting which was displayed in the town hall, and a well known freed man who spoke at the town hall  before the Civil War.

There was established in the town in the 1800's two pharmacies, two general stores, two lawyers, a blacksmith shop, and a shoe factory.   My great-great-great-grandfather first comes on the census in 1850 but Methodist-Episcopal church history lists him as one of the four circuit riders who ministered to the church. There were three churches in town including the Methodist, Primitive Baptist and Baptist churches, as well as many in rural areas surrounding the town.

During the Civil War a boot factory was set up in the blacksmith and tannery shop and produced boots for Confederate soldiers.  My great-great-great grandfather worked in that factory using skills he had learned as a young man.

Even following the civil war the town continued to be prosperous until the boll weevil wiped out the cotton crops in the late 1800's and drove the economy down to it's lowest point.

The town is a lovely town with single lane roadways, a central railroad that runs through town and lovely historic old homes.  The town has faded but was a major player in Georgia history.

I Started at Culloden, Georgia

I take after my father and his father.  If there is a road off a main highway something in me calls out to go explore it.   In our family we generally call it 'going for a little ride' which is our way of saying "I'll probably get lost but I've never been this way before..." That's how I discovered Culloden, off of U.S. Highway 341 in the southernmost part of Monroe County, Georgia.

Culloden is pretty much like many a tiny town in the rural Georgia area: disintegrating, charming, hinting of a more prosperous past.  I began by driving about the streets of the town and stumbled upon two federal era  houses tucked along a back road where pavement turned into dirt.   Then I drove by an old fashioned well sporting a sign that it was once the town well which  dated to the late 1700's.  I was fascinated by this tattered little tiny town with such a long history.  It  shows it's struggle with modern day economies but it's a nice little town, sedate and pretty.

I frequently made a point of driving through the area when I was on my way back from a visit  with my Grandmother.   Once we've traveled a meandering roadway off the main route and discover how it ties in to the roadway we're meant to be taking, we refer to it as 'the long cut', because it takes a little longer to get home but it's often a more interesting view along the winding back roads.

I have always had a love for old things.  To hold a crackled old creamer in my hand, adorned with flowers and the remnants of gold on the rim, sends me into a bemused state.  I wonder about the woman who treasured that bit of pretty china, who loved it enough to really use it.    I wonder about her home, her life.  I am just as bemused by little old decrepit towns.   Old storefronts, pretty churches, a row of older homes, a railroad track running through the center of town all speak of a past of which I somehow must dream.   It seems to me that I can feel the presence of the former days co-existing with the present day town.

I drove  through Culloden one spring day with my mother on one of our weekly drives about six years ago.  She mentioned that her great, great grandfather had been a minister at the Methodist church and that he had lived in that town.  I came home that afternoon and typed in his name on my computer search bar.  I found a cousin had done some family research.  I was hooked.  Curiosity led me to keep looking, adding names and family members to various lines, studying the history of the areas where they were known to live. That moment of curiosity turned into many hours of digging into various family lines, learning more historical facts than I'd ever dreamed I'd know and fueled my passion to know my family and myself, in a deeper way.

So my best answer when asked 'Where do you start?' by others who are interested in genealogy and history is to start with curiosity.  It can be curiosity about a tiny forgotten town, or a name of a defunct community on a map, or a name that recurs in the family or a family story.  With the internet, we have opportunity to go anywhere curiosity takes us.  It leads to the most amazing journeys.