Starkville, Georgia

Starkville, or Starksville,[1] is a ghost town in Lee County, Georgia. The town is named for American Revolution war hero John Stark.[2]

History

Starkville was founded in 1832 as the county seat of Lee county.[3] By 1837 a courthouse had been erected and by 1840 a jail was built. In 1856 the courthouse burned[4] and the county seat was moved to Webster, but returned in 1858. In 1832 Starkville Academy was formed to educate the young people of the town. The Georgia General Assembly incorporated Starville as a town in 1839.[5]

In 1872 the county seat was moved to Wooten Station (now known as Leesburg) and the population of Starkville dwindled away.[6] In 1916, five African-American men who had been taken from a jail in Worth County were lynched by a mob.[7] The town's municipal charter was not officially repealed until 1995.[8] Little remains of the original community. A cemetery marks the site.[9]

References
  1. "Starksville". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey. Retrieved February 26, 2018.
  2. "Lee County". GeorgiaInfo. Retrieved 12 June 2019.
  3. "Early Lee County".
  4. "Lee County, Georgia". Retrieved 15 November 2017.
  5. Acts Passed by the General Assembly of Georgia. J. Johnston. 1840. p. 94.
  6. "Lee County". Retrieved 15 November 2017.
  7. "Lynch 5 Negros on Same Limb of Tree". January 21, 1916. Retrieved 18 December 2019.
  8. Krakow, Kenneth K. (1975). Georgia Place-Names: Their History and Origins (PDF). Macon, GA: Winship Press. p. 212. ISBN 0-915430-00-2.
  9. Gosa, John. "Former Lee County seat now ghost town". Retrieved 15 November 2017.

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