Page:The cotton kingdom (Volume 2).djvu/399

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

SECOND TIER COUNTIES.

Soil.—"Light and sandy, except on the streams, which is stiff." Education.—"Education is neglected." Eight public schools (1 to 148 square miles), with sixteen pupils each. Annual cost of maintenance of each school, $150. No other schools; no Sunday school or other libraries. Character of the people.—"Sober, industrious and hospitable" (phrases applied to every county not specially noted as conspicuous for some vice or virtue of its inhabitants.) Religion.—Sixteen church edifices, valued at 938 each. According to Mr. White, however, there are "about thirty churches" in the county. Wayne County.

Population.—Whites, 930;


COAST COUNTIES.

Soil.—"The practice has been to wear out the virgin soils, and clear new lands. * * * Much waste land."

Education.—"Excellent schools are found. * * * And it is believed that a greater number of young men from Liberty county graduate from our colleges than from any other section of Georgia." There are five "academies," with an average of nineteen pupils each. Five public schools (1 to 160 square miles), maintained at an average expenditure of $15.40 per annum each. No libraries found in the census canvass of 1849. Mr. White states that the Medway and Newport Library Society had, in 1845, "about seven hundred volumes, in a very bad state of preservation." This library was established by some New England immigrants before the prohibition of slavery was annulled in the province. The early settlers of the county were chiefly from Massachusetts.

Character of the people.—"Generally upright and virtuous, and they are unsurpassed for the great attention paid to the duties of religion."

Religion.—Ten church edifices; average value, $1,200.


McIntosh County, broadest on the sea.

Population.—Whites, 1,300;