Meigs, GA Community Life at a Glance.

The pioneers reportedly made turpentine and cut lumber from the Pine barrens which is the way the area was listed on early maps.

But in those days most folks couldn´t read much and could write very little so no written record of these events have ever been discovered.

One such story has as its principal character a man named Meigs coming into the area in an old battered wagon loaded with children and that´s how the town of Meigs was begun.

The actual recorded history, however, has been a project of Mrs. F.C. Pittman of Meigs for many years.

The oldest official notice that a community existed at Meigs was in the Georgia State Gazzetter in 1883, but not in one of the preceding year.

The Gazetteer listed Meigs as on the Savannah, Florida and Western Railway and on the Ochlochnee River 18 miles northwest of Thomasville, the seat of justice, bank and telegraph office, and 250 miles from Atlanta.

Meigs population in 1883 was listed as 200, with a Missionary Baptist Church, a steam saw and grist mill and office of Southern Express with cotton, lumber and produce being shipped and mail arriving daily.

There were listed that year among the businesses of the community one general store, three turpentine firms, one sawyer, one cotton buyer, one broker, one master mechanic, one railroad agent, two carpenters, one physician, one civil engineer, two saw mills, one machinist one minister and one livery stable.

But by 1888, the Gazetteer reported that Meigs population was 100, so either the town had falln into hard times or the early population figure had been padded.  In 1888 businesses included one hewn timber firm, one railroad agent and sheriff, one cotton gin, one lumber and general store, three turpentine firms, one vineyard, one distiller, one blacksmith and livery stable, one dairy and one general store.

It has also been duly recorded that the Meigs Post Office was established January 10, 1882 with George W. Meigs as postmaster.

As the Meigs family came from Society Hill, South Carolina, evidently the town was named after one of the Meigs family who had settled here earlier.

It is known that the descendants like W.A. Meigs and his family contributed much to the early growth of the town.  He was a naval stores operator.

The first mayor of Meigs was Perry Peterman.

In 1885 Prof. J.E. Dison came to Meigs to teach a group of 20 pupils in a one-room log cabin on West Marshall Street.  The next year a school was built on East Marshall Street. It was also used for church services prior to the building of churches.

In 1899 a public school was built but it burned and a new brick structure was built at a cost of $20,000 in 1903.  It was called the Meigs Grade School but later became the Meigs High School.