RE: THE LOTTERY OF 1820

HISTORY OF PIERCE COUNTY GEORGIA, VOLUME ONE By Dean Broome, page 15

LAND LOTTERY OF 1820

Original Appling County contained 13 land districts numbered 1 through 13, with districts No,. 4, 5, 8 and 9 containing the area that was to become Pierce County. Each lot drawn in the lottery was 490 acres. This reflected the general belief at the time that land in southern Georgia was of little value, since the lotteries in other areas of the state involved land acreage of as little as 40 acres per draw.

Not all of those who successfully drew 490-acre lots came to claim them. “The fine timbered lands of Wiregrass Georgia held no attraction for settlers in those days, but were rather a detriment, for no used had been found for the unending stands of immense timber that stood in the way of clearing up the lands for cultivation. The people of the older sections of Georgia and in the Carolinas looked upon the flatwoods of Wiregrass Georgia as terribly unhealthy, subject to the worst kinds of fevers. The worst kind of reports circulated everywhere that people who moved down into that new country not only were subject to get lost and never be heard from again, but were also exposed constantly to Indian attack, and if they survived the Indians they couldn’t live long on account of fevers. Generally, the country was looked on as a nightmare.” (Huxford, newspaper article in 1950).