Griswoldville, an industrial village on the Central of Georgia Railway in Jones County, produced cotton gins during the antebellum period and Confederate revolvers during the Civil War (1861-65). The village was destroyed during Union general William T. Sherman’s march to the sea, and the only major infantry battle of that campaign was fought near its ruins. Samuel Griswold, the village’s founder, moved from Connecticut to Jones County after the War of 1812 (1812-15).

Gus Whalen was the fourth-generation president and chief executive officer (CEO) of the Warren Featherbone Company, which manufactured children’s clothing and served as a major employer in Gainesville from 1956 to 2005. Widely recognized in north Georgia as a civic-minded business leader and fervent community builder, Whalen was known nationally as a popular speaker, prolific author, and active promoter of American manufacturing. Early History Charles Edward “Gus” Whalen Jr. was born on April 9, 1945, in Chicago, Illinois, to Mary Louise Chamberlain and Charles E.

A crew from the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation, headquarted in Atlanta, drives nails during a Habitat for Humanity house-raising. Arthur Blank, center, cofounded The Home Depot in 1979 and established the foundation in 1995. Courtesy of Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation The New Georgia Encyclopedia does not hold the copyright for this media resource and can neither grant nor deny permission to republish or reproduce the image online or in print.

Men gather outside of a store in Hampton, located in Henry County, around 1900. The town was a thriving agricultural community early in the twentieth century, but the economy of Hampton and the surrounding area would suffer after the boll weevil invasion of 1920. The New Georgia Encyclopedia does not hold the copyright for this media resource and can neither grant nor deny permission to republish or reproduce the image online or in print.

Hartwell is the seat of Hart County, which was named for Revolutionary War (1775-83) heroine Nancy Hart. The town narrowly escaped  being called Nancyville. Located some 100 miles northeast of Atlanta near the South Carolina border, it was incorporated in 1856 and quickly became the supply and processing center for the local agricultural economy. The town was spared much of the direct devastation accompanying the Civil War (1861-65). And with the state’s “redemption” from Reconstruction, the community returned to a political complacency that lasted until the emergence in the 1890s of a significant Populist challenge to local Democrat control.