According to website of the City of Baconton, the town was named for Major Robert James Bacon, who settled in the area in 1858. A planter and entrepreneur, Bacon gave the Savannah, Florida & Western Railroad the right-of-way through his plantation, ensuring an economic presence for the community, which was named in his honor in 1869. Baconton is best-known today as the birthplace of the paper-shell pecan industry in Georgia. This variety was generally more desirable than others and brought a better profit to its growers, hence the emergence of nearby Albany as the center of the paper-shell market by the 1920s, as land speculators planted thousands of acres of pecans in the area.
According to Maria Clark, the paper-shell variety was invented [grafted] by an enslaved man named Antoine who worked at Oak Alley Plantation in Louisiana circa 1846. The first commercially-viable variety of note was known as the Centennial Pecan, as it had been submitted as a representative product of Louisiana at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876. In Georgia, for much of the 20th century, the Schley was the go-to paper-shell variety, and in my family’s orchards they have always been a favorite. New varieties are being developed all the time.
These historic postcards illustrate how proud Baconton was of its burgeoning paper-shell pecan industry in the early 1900s.
Fascinating old postcard views!
My Georgia Centennial Family Farm, located in Northern Grady County, has 2 large pecan groves with 12 Schley variety trees. Trees were planted in 1914/1915 by my father. Many other older varieties are planted also. When harvested, I save 100 pounds of shelled pecans, freeze them, and bake pecan pies. Thanks for your interesting, informative article.