BURKE COUNTY

 

Burke County is one of the state's original counties.  It was created by the state constitution of 1777 from the colonial parish of St. George but within thirty years had to divide its territory with the newly formed Screven and Jefferson counties.  Burke was the first county in Georgia to be designated.

 

The county was named to honor Edmond Burke, a member of Parliament who supported the colonies' interest.  Waynesboro, the county seat, was named for General "Mad" Anthony Wayne who won fame during the final days of the Revolution in Georgia.

 

In 1779, around four hundred British soldiers engaged Americans led by John Twiggs and William Few at the Burke County Jail on McIntosh Creek.  The British were driven off.

 

Halfway between Millen and Waynesboro is the Bellevue Plantation which was given as a royal grant by George III to Samuel Eastlake in 1767.  What is believed to be the original plantation house is still standing and occupied by the same family that has owned it since 1835.  In 1864 it was slightly damaged by gunfire when a Confederate cavalry unit led by Gen. Joseph Wheeler caught Kilpatrick's Union cavalry pillaging the house.

The last surviving edifice George Washington was known to have visited in Georgia had been located in Waynesboro but was demolished in 1932.  A stone marker is all that is left now to commemorate his visit in 1791 to the house owned by Isaiah and Alexander Carter of Waynesboro.