Monroe County, located in west central Georgia about fifty miles south of Atlanta and twenty-five miles north of Macon, is the state’s fiftieth county. It was named for James Monroe, the fifth president of the United States. Creek Indians held the land until 1821, when they were impelled to surrender it in a treaty signed at Indian Spring in the Muscogee Nation. Portions of Monroe County later went to the formation of Bibb, Butts, Lamar, and Pike counties.

Many of the first settlers were Scottish Highlanders who had lived previously in eastern Georgia. Others were of English and Irish descent, and many came from eastern Georgia, South Carolina, and Virginia. Their rural community was first called Cullodenville to honor William Culloden, a merchant who settled there in the 1820s The name was shortened to Culloden when the town was incorporated in 1887.

Monroe County Courthouse
Monroe County Courthouse
Photograph by J Stephen Conn

The state legislature designated the county seat as Forsyth in 1823, and the first courthouse, built in 1825, was replaced by the current structure in 1896. Still in use, the courthouse was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.

Chartered in 1833, the Monroe Railroad connected Forsyth and Macon and was among the first railroads in the state. A later depot for the Central of Georgia Railway in Forsyth has been restored and now serves as the county’s historical museum.

In 1860, on the eve of the Civil War (1861-65), more than 10,000 enslaved laborers lived in Monroe County, accounting for nearly two-thirds of the county’s total population. Though it was an active site during the conflict, Monroe County escaped widespread destruction. A skirmish was fought at a Towaliga River bridge on November 17, 1864. The Battle of Culloden on April 19, 1865, was fought ten days after the surrender of Confederate general Robert E. Lee at Appomattox, Virginia, when Wilson’s Raiders entered middle Georgia. Confederate soldiers wounded in battles at Atlanta were brought to Forsyth for medical treatment, and 300 soldiers are buried in a Confederate cemetery in the town.

Forsyth Female Collegiate Institute
Forsyth Female Collegiate Institute
Courtesy of Georgia Archives.

Within the decade of the 1830s at least three schools were founded in Culloden alone: Culloden Academy in 1830, Culloden Female Academy in 1834, and Culloden Male and Female Academy in 1837. The Montpelier Institute, founded in 1842, was among the earliest schools for girls in the state. Tift College was first chartered in 1849 under the name Forsyth Female Collegiate Institute. In 1986 it merged with Mercer University, whose trustees closed the Forsyth campus in 1987.

The Forsyth Normal and Industrial School became the state’s first vocational school for African Americans in 1918 with the mission of training teachers. Founded in 1902 by William M. Hubbard, the school became one of few in Georgia to educate Black youth up to the eleventh grade. In 1931 its name changed to the State Teachers and Agricultural College (STAC), and at the same time became one of three public colleges for African Americans included in the University System of Georgia. In 1939 the college merged with Fort Valley Normal and Industrial School to become Fort Valley State College. Today Fort Valley State University, a historically Black university, maintains its campus in Fort Valley.

Agriculture was a substantial part of the county’s economy until the era of the boll weevil, which decimated Monroe’s cotton crop, causing many farmers to turn to commercial dairy farming. Agricultural employment declined in the decades that followed. Today one of the largest employers is Georgia Power Company.

Noteworthy residents have included Alfred Blalock, an internationally renowned research scientist and surgeon whose work on surgical shock saved many lives during World War II (1941-45). William Morrill Wadley, president of the Central of Georgia Railway, and Emory Speer, a federal jurist and late-nineteenth-century U.S. congressman, were also county residents.

Lake Juliette
Lake Juliette
Courtesy of Explore Georgia.

Places of interest include the Chattahoochee National Forest (Monroe County is one of the eighteen counties over which this national forest spreads); High Falls State Park, a 1,050-acre park that features waterfalls; and Lake Juliette, a 3,600-acre reservoir operated by Georgia Power and open for waterfowl hunting. Many sites in Monroe County are on the National Register of Historic Places, including the Hil’ardin/Sharp-Hardin-Wright House in Forsyth; the Montpelier Female Institute, west of Macon; and the State Teachers and Agricultural College for Negroes Women’s Dormitory and Teachers’ Cottage in Forsyth. Juliette, an unincorporated town in the county, was reconstructed as the fictional town of Whistle Stop for the making of the film Fried Green Tomatoes (1991). Today Juliette offers several souvenir shops as well as the operational Whistle Stop Cafe.

According to the 2020 U.S. census, the population of Monroe County was 27,957.

Share Snippet Copy Copy with Citation

Updated Recently

A More Perfect Union

The New Georgia Encyclopedia is supported by funding from A More Perfect Union, a special initiative of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Image

Monroe County Courthouse

Monroe County Courthouse

The Monroe County Courthouse, designed in the High Victorian Eclectic style, was built in Forsyth in 1896. Added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980, the structure is the county's second courthouse.

Photograph by J Stephen Conn

Forsyth Female Collegiate Institute

Forsyth Female Collegiate Institute

The Forsyth Female Collegiate Institute was founded in Monroe County in 1849 and later became Tift College. In 1986 the school merged with Mercer University in Macon.

Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #mnr079.

View on partner site

Monroe County Logging

Monroe County Logging

Employees of the Gus Stuart Logging Company in Monroe County load freshly cut lumber in 1952. The timber industry became an important part of the county's economy in the mid-twentieth century after the demise of the cotton industy.

Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
mnr147.

View on partner site

Lake Juliette

Lake Juliette

Lake Juliette, a 3,600-acre reservoir in Monroe County, is one of the premier spots for waterfowl hunting in the state. It is operated by the Georgia Power Company.

Courtesy of Explore Georgia, Photograph by Ralph Daniel.

Juliette Depot

Juliette Depot

The railroad depot in Juliette, in Monroe County, is pictured circa 1900.

Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
mnr183.

View on partner site

Forsyth

Forsyth

West Adams Street in the town of Forsyth, in Monroe County, is pictured circa 1913. On the left is Forsyth Methodist Church, and on the right is Maynard's Cotton Warehouse.

Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
mnr102.

View on partner site