History of Griffin, Georgia
The city of Griffin, Georgia, was founded on June 8, 1840 by General Lewis Lawrence Griffin, a former state legislator, General in the Georgia militia, railroad man and astute businessman.
In the 1830s, there were three railroads in Georgia. One ran from Savannah to Macon, one from Augustine to Madison, and the Monroe railroad owned by General Griffin which ran from Macon to Forsyth. A fourth one was in the planning stages which would run from a little town called Terminus in North Georgia to Chattanooga, Tennessee.
The general believed that if all of these railroads were fully developed and extended there would be very important railroad lines of communications crisscrossing the state connecting the Atlantic Ocean to the Tennessee River and Augusta to the Chattahoochee River. He predicted that where the railroads crossed at a spot on a farm owned by Bartholomew Still in what was then a part of Pike County. General Griffin purchased 800 acres from Stilll and platted out the city which would bear his name. On June 8, 1840, he stood on a tree stump near this site in began auctioning off lots. Construction on his railroad from Forsyth to Griffin was started and the city in the wilderness prospered. Unfortunately, a business depression hit and the Monroe Railroad collapsed, along with General Griffin’s dream.
Plaque courtesy Lat34North.com.
Original page, with additional info, here.
Photo credit: Todd Massar.