Smithonia, Georgia facts for kids
Quick facts for kids |
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Smithonia
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| Nearest city | Comer, Georgia |
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| Built | 1866 |
| Architect | James Monroe Smith (Georgia planter) |
| Architectural style | Plantation Plain |
| NRHP reference No. | 84001213 |
| Added to NRHP | June 21, 1984 |
Smithonia is an unincorporated community in Oglethorpe County, Georgia, United States at the intersection of Crawford-Smithonia and Smithonia Roads. It is also the name of a historical plantation listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.
Smithonia is reported in the database of the NRHP as the nearest community to Howard's Covered Bridge, three miles away. The nearest city is Comer.
Smithonia, near Athens, was founded and named by Georgia State Senator James Monroe Smith. In the post-Civil War economy, Smith nurtured a small farm into the state's largest plantation.
History
The land was part of Georgia agricultural tycoon and state legislator James Monroe Smith (Georgia planter)'s property holdings. It was built in 1866 in a "Plantation Plain" architectural style. The Smith and Dunlap Railroad connected the property with the Georgia Railroad at Dunlap, Georgia. The rail line was also used to construct Howard's Covered Bridge.
James M. Smith held hundreds of debt slaves on a farm that stretched thirty miles from the town he named after himself: In the post-Civil War economy, Smith nurtured a small farm into the state's largest plantation. He became a major buyer of convicts soon after Georgia's Reconstruction government was toppled by a campaign of voter fraud and Ku Klux Klan violence. For workers he relied on an army of terrified convict slaves, including many African Americans he had owned before the war or their descendants.
