MONROE COUNTY HISTORICAL
SOCIETY
(Copyright
2004 - Monroe County Historical Society)
THE CITY OF CULLODEN
The southern most tip of Monroe County is encompassed by the small Culloden community which has for about 190 years contributed its proud share to the state in which it is located. While it was not until 1821 that the Creek Indians, by treaty, gave Monroe County its territory, the history of Culloden goes farther back than that to 1739,a few years after the settlement of Savannah by General Oglethorpe. It was then that English, Irish and Scotch families moved farther west, where the Creek Indian trails crossed from Columbus to Indian Springs and Alabama to Augusta. Culloden occupies that spot and descendants of those settlers live there today. With scarcely a change those old Indian trails are state highways today.
In 1780 William Culloden, a Scotch Highlander, began merchandising there. By this time many wealthy Virginia planters with many slaves had moved to the community. Culloden's store became the trading center and post station for the stage coach lines and it was in honor of him that the town received his name. At his death he was buried in Culloden, where his marked grave can be seen now. The Methodist Church built in 1802, burned before it could be occupied. Its successor, a church built of local brick in 1809, was rebuilt in 1832, a two story brick building was erected on the grounds now knowr; as the New Culloden cemetery. The ground floor was used as a boys' school and the second story as the Methodist Church. Later this church was rebuilt in 1893 on the site on which it now stands. It is the oldest brick church in Georgia and probably the oldest Methodist Church of any type being used as such today.
Culloden was early a seat of learning. Culloden Academy was chartered in 1830, Culloden Female Academy in 1834, and Culloden Male and Female Academy in 1837. It is interesting that the organization of the county and the establishment of these schools was simultaneous. The schools which did the most to establish the excellence of reputation were the Mason school for boys in the same building as the Methodist Church and the Darby School for Young ladies which stood on the site now occupied by Rev. Albert Parker. The girls' dormitory was across the street on the Wilson property. The first school was headed by Mr. Marvin Massey
Mason from New England and later by John Darby of Macon. He was an author and discoverer and manufacturer of the famous Darby's Prophylactic Fluid.
From these most excellent schools, and many times with little other instruction, came a group of men and women who functioned in many high places. I know of no community, of anything like equal size in the United States that surpasses Culloden in the number of its sons who have been enrolled among those who acquired celebrity in the pulpit, on the bench, at the bar, in statesmanship and in other high public walks. Among these were the following: Thomas Manson Norwood, the first Democrat from the South who was seated in the U. S. Senate after the close of the Civil War; James Milton Smith, Speaker of the House and Governor of Georgia; Thomas J. Simmons, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, President of the Senate; Robert P. Trippe, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court and Congressman; Alexander M. Speer, Associate Justice of Supreme Court; Emory Speer, Judge of the U. S. District Court and Congressman; Nathaniel J. Hammond, Congressman and Attorney General of Georgia; Edward A. Flewellan, chief surgeon and physician on the staff of the celebrated Confederate General Braxton Bragg; the consecrated brothers, Frank and Osgood Cook noted Methodist ministers; Benjamin G. Lockett, notable in financial circles in the North and in the South as the country's largest cotton planter; Samuel Rutherford, Congressman from the Sixth District. In more recent years, U.S. Fuller and the Holmes Brothers, Robert H. and C.A. were representatives in the Georgia legislature; Joe L. Fincher and Capens A. Holmes, Jr. have served their country in fields of action in England, France, Germany, Greece, Korea and have retired as Colonels in the army; H.D. Fincher made a name for himself in the cotton seed oil business in Texas and built a number of plants in South America; Frank H. Fuller excelled in the field of journalism and was "head of Virginia's Associated Press in Richmond, Virginia at the time of his death. In the field of medicine Dr. Alfred Blolock who discovered the blue baby treatment and was on the staff at Johns Hopkins, was born and reared in Culloden.
Culloden today is still located on those old Indian Trails, which are now better known as Highway 341 and 74. As 341 passes through Culloden it follows a ridge of the fall line; water that falls on the East side eventually finds its way into the Atlantic Ocean and that on the west into the Gulf of Mexico.
Culloden has an altitude of 750 feet, abundant rain fall and mild climate. The farm lands are the fertile oak and hickory lands.
Since the coming of the cotton's enemy, the boll weevil, the community is dotted with dairy farms, cattle ranches, peach orchards and perm into pepper fields. About 5000 gallons of milk are shipped to Atlanta daily.
Best of all, Culloden is a community of healthy, contented people, with just pride of ancestry, who have fought in all ( America's wars; of patriots, ever zealous for the common good of their town, their state and their nation. (by R. S. Pierson