Lumpkin, Georgia

Lumpkin, Georgia
—  City  —
Stewart County Courthouse in Lumpkin, GA
Location in Stewart County and the state of Georgia
Coordinates: 32°2′59″N 84°47′45″W
Country	United States
State	Georgia
County	Stewart
Area
• Total	1.6 sq mi (4.1 km2)
• Land	1.6 sq mi (4.1 km2)
• Water	0 sq mi (0 km2)
Elevation	600 ft (183 m)
Population (2000)
• Total	1,369
• Density	855.6/sq mi (333.9/km2)
Time zone	Eastern (EST) (UTC-5)
• Summer (DST)	EDT (UTC-4)
ZIP code	31815
Area code(s)	229
FIPS code	13-47980
GNIS feature ID	0317484

Lumpkin is a city in, and the county seat of, Stewart County, Georgia, United States. The population was 1,369 at the 2000 census.

History

This area of Georgia was inhabited by indigenous Native Americans for thousands of years before European contact. Historical tribes who encountered European Americans as their settlements encroached on traditional territory included Cherokee, Choctaw and Creek. During the Indian Removal of 1830, such tribes were moved west of the Mississippi River to Indian Territory, to make way for European American settlement.

Lumpkin was incorporated by European Americans on March 30, 1829. It was formerly the seat of Randolph County, but became the seat of Stewart County when it split from Randolph in 1830. The city was named in honor of Wilson Lumpkin, a two-term governor of Georgia and legislator who supported Indian Removal. His namesake county is at the eastern end of the state.

The town grew as a commercial center, served by stagecoach. Its merchants traded with the planters in the area. This was part of the Black Belt of Georgia, named for the fertile land that supported extensive cotton plantations in the 19th century. Planters depended on the labor of thousands of enslaved African Americans before the Civil War to cultivate and process the cotton for market.

After the war, many freedmen stayed in the area as sharecroppers and tenant farmers, and the economy continued to depend on agriculture. With land erosion, cotton farming gave way to peanut and pine tree cultivation. While the population of the county steadily decreased with the Great Migration of blacks to the North and Midwest in the early decades of the 20th century, that of Lumpkin remained relatively stable. The county is still quite rural.

Lumpkin was the first small town in Georgia to complete a successful historic preservation project to encourage tourism, with the restoration of the Bedingfield Inn, built in 1836. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is important to the central square.

In the 1960s, a group of citizens created a living history complex known as Westville. They relocated 30 historic structures to create a grouping of western Georgia architecture as would be found in an 1850s working village. Some of the buildings were purchased from the collection of John Word West established in 1928 in Jonesboro, Georgia. The village is staffed by volunteers to give the sense of daily life.

Geography

Lumpkin is located at 32°02′59″N 84°47′45″W.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 1.6 square miles (4.1 km²), of which, 1.6 square miles (4.1 km²) of it is land and 0.04 square miles (0.1 km²) of it (1.25%) is water.

Education

Stewart County School District

The Stewart County School District holds grades pre-school to grade twelve, that consists of one elementary school, a middle school, and a high school. The district has 58 full-time teachers and over 704 students.

• Stewart County Elementary School
• Stewart County Middle School
• Stewart County High School

Elected officials

Charles Gibson, Mayor of Lumpkin, was the first African American male elected in November 2010.

• Council Members: Barbara Cullefur, Kenneth Seay, Flossie Brown, Denise Tinker, Rick Eighmey, and Kimberly Seldon.
• City Administrator: Phillip Hite
• Chief Of Police: Ronald Jackson
• City Clerk: Marianna Williams

Demographics

As of the census of 2000, there were 1,369 people, 552 households, and 367 families residing in the city. The population density was 862.2 people per square mile (332.4/km²). There were 621 housing units at an average density of 391.1 per square mile (150.8/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 70.42% African American, 28.85% White, 0.29% Native American, and 0.44% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.66% of the population.

There were 552 households out of which 29.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 34.4% were married couples living together, 26.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 33.5% were non-families. 28.8% of all households were made up of individuals and 14.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.48 and the average family size was 3.08.

In the city the population was spread out with 27.4% under the age of 18, 7.4% from 18 to 24, 27.4% from 25 to 44, 21.3% from 45 to 64, and 16.5% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females there were 89.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 77.2 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $22,315, and the median income for a family was $27,321. Males had a median income of $22,422 versus $20,250 for females. The per capita income for the city was $16,146. About 24.2% of families and 26.7% of the population were below the poverty line, including 35.7% of those under age 18 and 18.3% of those age 65 or over.

Further reading

• George W. Chamberlin Jr., ed., Letters of Hawthorn: A Collection of Family Letters by Hawthorn S. Chamberlin, 1845-1865, Gadsden, Ala.: Frost and Frost, 1971.

• Helen Eliza Terrill and Sara Robertson Dixon, eds., History of Stewart County, Georgia, Columbus, Ga.: Columbus Office Supply Co., 1958.