Eatonton History

1805	Baldwin County organized from lands ceded by the Creek Nation
1806	Victory Church was the first Methodist church west of the Oconee River
1807	Site for Eatonton determined Putnam and Morgan Counties were incorporated, Decmber 10, 1807 Crooked Creek Primitive Baptist Chusrch was organized
1808	Eatonton was named for William Eaton, a military hero from Connecticut The first Putnam County elections were held on January 14, 540 votes were cast The site for Eatonton was laid off into streets and squares, each square being divided into six one-half acre lots and sold at public auction on April 15, 1808
1809	Union Academy was chartered
1810	A log courthouse was built on the town square 1810 Census reported Putnam County had a popluation of 10,029 persons
1812	Victory Church's name was changed to Concord Methodist Church
1816	Alonzo Church becomes headmaster of Union Academy and changes the school's name to Eatonton Academy Georgia State Penitentiary was completed in Milledgeville
1818	The Eatonton Academy Library Society, organized by Alonzo Church, was chartered
1819	Union Church built, this was the first church built in Eatonton
1836	Eatonton Cotton Factory was built, it was the second built in Georgia
1845	Joel Chandler Harris is born
1854	Eatonton obtains a spur track to Milledgeville which would connect with the Central of Georgia railroad
1861	Putnam Brown Rifles were organized and would become part of Company B of the 3rd Regiment of Georgia Infantry Putnam Light Infantry joins Company G of the 12th Regiment of Georgia Infantry Volunteers
1862	Forty-one Putnam boys, all under fifteen years of age, form the Eatonton Light Guards and join the 27th Georgia Battalion Harris left Eatonton to work as a printer's devil on The Countryman published by Joseph Addison Turner on his Putnam County plantation, Turnworld
1863	Hundreds of wounded are brought into Eatonton, Madison, Milledgeville, and Greensboro following the Battle of Chickamauga
1864	In November William T. Sherman travels through Eatonton, Madison, Milledgeville, and Greensboro on his March to the Sea
1868	A clause in the Georgia Constitution for the removal of the state capital from Milledgeville to Atlanta passed
1880	Benjamin Hunt becomes the first Georgia member of American Jersey Cattle Club Hunt's "Madame Roland" was the first Jersey cow to take up residence in the county
1886	Hunt builds the first silo in Georgia
1900	By 1900 there are ten active dairies in Putnam County
1909	Hunt's cooperative creamery, the Eatonton Creamery, was chartered with 58 members
1922	Benjamin Hunt is awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Georgia
1925	Flannery O'Connor is born
1930	Rock Eagle becomes part of the Works Project Administration (WPA)
1933	Briarpatch Farms Project
1944	Alice Walker is born
1952	First Dairy Festival
1964	Flannery O'Connor dies of lupus in Milledgeville