Uncover 25 of Liberty County’s Hidden Secrets

Liberty County is a beautiful place, and most folks don’t even realize the amount of rich history that it holds! We are #LibertyCountyProud of the gems that have made us into who we are, and we want to share them with y’all. We gathered a list of 25 facts that we believe could be considered Liberty County’s Secrets, because they are not very well known.

1) The spot where the Midway Church sits was not its original location.

The first permanent meetinghouse was built in 1756 west of the existing church. This meetinghouse was destroyed by the British during the Revolutionary War. In 1792, the present church building was built in a New England Style. The exterior of the church, now white, was painted red at that time to prevent decay. The church building was reoriented in 1849 to its current placement, and was moved 40 feet east in the 1950’s when Highway 17 was widened. Otherwise, it has never been modernized. It has been described as “one of the most scenic historic landmarks in Georgia.” The photo above is from 1927.

2) Mary Musgrove’s alleged house is located on St. Catherines Island.

Mary Musgrove was a Creek Indian that influenced peace between the native people and the English when they arrived in the 1700’s. She also served as an interpreter for James Oglethorpe during that time! Following many years of service, she settled on St. Catherines Island with her husband to spend the remaining years of her life. The photo shown above was taken in 1927 and it is believed that it may have been the home that Mary and her husband lived in during their time on our barrier island.

3) The upper portion of the Canoochee River flows through Fort Stewart.

From 1790-1800 some of the first settlers in the upper portion of Liberty County began building their homes, farms and lives along the upper reaches of the Canoochee River (shown above).

4) The historic “Hines House” was once a hotel.

Charlton Hines built this home on courthouse square in Hinesville sometime between 1840-1850. After he and his wife passed, their son Joseph Charlton Hines inherited the home and turned it into the Hines Hotel! The photo on the left is from 1880 and is believed to be of Mr. & Mrs. Hines with their children.

5) Walthourville City Hall used to be a train station!

6) The area that the Liberty Square Shopping Center is located in Hinesville used to be the family home of Robert Sidney Hendry. Hence the name “Hendry Street.”

Above: Members and descendants of the Hendry family having a picnic on the grounds where their home stood in the year 1910.

7) The Stewart-Screven Monument in the Midway Cemetery was not erected until 1915.

8) The first rural mail carriers in Liberty County used motorcycles to make their deliveries!

Above: J. Madison Smith was the first rural mail carrier in Liberty County and is shown on his motorcycle while out making deliveries.

9) Cane grinding was once a big deal in Liberty County.

Above: Workers grinding sugar cane on the farm of Joseph I. Daniel at Flemington in 1930.

10) Gumbranch was home to one of the most proficient growers of flowers in Liberty County history, named Eleanor (“Nellie”) Simmons Mobley (shown below). National seed companies purchased their seeds from her and her legacy continues to live on today!

11) The first woman in the state of Georgia to receive a license to become a mortician was a Liberty County resident. Hazel Bagley Carter also served as a member of the Hinesville City Council for 10 years, and was the first woman in Georgia to be elected to a board of county commissioners in 1959.

Above: Mrs. Carter and her husband. She served as the vice chairman of the Liberty County Board of Commissioners for 16 years before becoming chairman in 1985.

12) The first hospital in Liberty County was located downtown, on Courthouse Square.

Above: T.W. Welborn with his daughters. Mr. Welborn served as the mayor of Hinesville for 3 terms before and during WWII and was responsible for establishing the first hospital.

13) The first movie theatre at Camp Stewart, now Fort Stewart was constructed in 1940 inside of a pitched circus tent.

14) The Hinesville post office did not start making home deliveries until 1956.

Above: W.L. Salter Jr., James P. Argogast and William P. Floyd, the city’s first carriers.

15) The port at Sunbury used to be deeper natural seaport than Savannah.

Above: the bustling seaport in Sunbury in the year 1960.

16) We broke a Guinness World Record in 2008!

Located in Midway, you can find the World’s Largest Crayon. It is 9ft 8in tall and weighs over 600 pounds! The crayon is made up of over 119,000 recycled crayons that came from Liberty County Schools.

17) Martin Luther King Jr. was a frequent guest at Dorchester Academy during the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960’s!

He enjoyed playing baseball with the kids, and he even wrote parts of his most famous speeches here. Be sure to go tour the bedroom he slept in while he stayed in Liberty County.

18) Two signers of the Declaration of Independence are from Liberty County – Lyman Hall and Button Gwinnett!

Lyman Hall was also a governor of Georgia from 1783-1784, and while he was born in Connecticut in 1724, he moved to Georgia later in life. Button Gwinnett was born in Gloucestershire, England in 1735 and came to Georgia in 1765! Upon his arrival, he purchased St. Catherines Island.

19) Our barrier island, St. Catherines, was home to a Spanish mission built in the late 1500s!

This mission is the oldest church in Georgia, and possibly the oldest church in the United States. The Spanish mission began with the goal of converting Native Americans who lived there to Catholicism.

20) The first African American female mayor in the state of Georgia was from Walthourville!

Mayor Carrie Kent was also a member of the state’s first all-woman city council, appointed by then Governor Jimmy Carter.

21) Liberty County native and American Revolutionary War hero, Daniel Stewart, was the great-grandfather of President Theodore Roosevelt.

You can find his headstone in the Midway Cemetery! It’s open from sunrise to sunset, 7 days a week.

22) The owner of the LifeSavers ® candy, Edward Noble, owned a home and lived on St. Catherines Island!

23) President John F. Kennedy visited Fort Stewart on November 26, 1962!

He was the first US president to visit with the First Armored Division.

24) Fort Morris State Historic Site is operates as part of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources and is Georgia’s only Revolutionary Historic Site with earthworks!

25) The LeConte pear is named after John Eatton LeConte who introduced it to Georgia in 1856.

“The history of the Southern pear industry began with the introduction of the LeConte Pear tree into Thomasville in the early 1870s. At one time, it was conservatively stated there were at least 200,000 trees in Thomas County. Great prices were received, the growers in those days getting from $3 to $7 per bushel. The LeConte and Kieffer pear industry extended from Thomas County all along South Georgia to include Liberty County,” an interview with Leander Lewis Varnedoe, April 16, 1882. Major LeConte was the creator of the hybrid version of the LeConte Pear. After doing this, he sent a seedling to his niece Jane LeConte Harden in Riceboro.

We could go on for days listing all of the “secrets” that make Liberty County such an amazing place, but we’ll save everyone some time. In order to uncover more, y’all will just have to come #ExploreLiberty yourselves!