I believe the Williamson’s (Williamson) Mill precinct house was the last such structure built by Ben Hill County. The area is also known as the Salem Community, but the precinct was always known as Williamson’s Mill. If I recall correctly, all of these rural precincts have now been abandoned. Earlier examples were of wood frame construction.
The area takes it name from the Williamson family, who operated a shingle mill and founded Salem Baptist Church.
This little pyramidal building in the churchyard of historic Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church originally served as a schoolhouse but more recently was used as a voting precinct. The community is known as Mt. Zion for the nearby Mt. Zion Presbyterian Church and its long vanished academy. It is an early area of settlement in Hancock County.
The structure appears to be primarily used for the disposal of old cemetery flowers today, inside and outside. It’s a better idea than throwing them in the woods, which I see at a lot of churches.
I hope this amazing resource will survive. Though it looks to be very endangered, it’s been here for many years and would have already been razed had the congregation not appreciated its historical importance.
I’m out on a limb identifying this structure, but I believe it’s an old precinct house, or courthouse as they’re often known in Southwest Georgia. It certainly looks like dozens of other structures used for this purpose that I have documented over the years. I’ll go further and suggest it may be the Oakland, or Oakland Road, precinct. [I found Oakland, Georgia, on Google Earth, just up the road from this building. Oakland never had a post office; it’s just one of those places that is/was locally known as a neighborhood.] Historically, this area has been characterized by large plantations centered primarily around extensive pecan orchards. It’s a very rural area on the fringes of Albany’s continued northward expansion.
I’ll gladly update if I learn more.
I made the above photograph in 2010. It’s the interior of a simple frame structure which stood in front of the Dismuke building. The overgrowth around the building was such that an exterior photograph wasn’t possible. My guess is that it was a precinct house, or courthouse as they’re often referred to in this section of the state. The photo below was made in October 2024.
In The History of Brooks County, Georgia (1948) Folks Huxford notes that area around Hickory Head was settled long before the Civil War by families from Bulloch, Jones, and Houston Counties. The families were comprised of hard-working farmers who valued their faith and strongly embraced education. They were members of Liberty Baptist Church, which was established in 1841. A. W. Groover donated land for the establishment of a school in 1866, and in either 1867 or 1869, it was built with funds raised through subscription. Mr. Groover, alongside W. H. Stanley and C. A. Davis, served as the first trustees of the Hickory Head Academy. Edwin B. Carroll, who would later serve as pastor at Hickory Head Baptist Church, was the first schoolmaster.
A plaque on the building notes that it was used as a school until 1925. Just a handful of rural academies like Hickory Head survive today, so that alone is an important part of its story, but its association with the Hickory Head Agricultural Club is quite extraordinary, as well. Folks Huxford suggests the club was established circa 1885 and met in the schoolhouse. Member farmers became widely known for shipping ham and bacon at a time when most of the South was importing meat from the Northwest. Brooks County pork, raised largely on peanuts, was in great demand. Hickory Head farmers were also among the first in the region to use ice in the cooling of meat, coming from Maine by way of Savannah. With modern innovations, the club faded over the years, but was revived as the Hickory Head Farm Club in 1946.
The building has also served as a voting precinct and is still used by the community for special events. It’s had a long and productive history.
When I first saw this building near County Line Baptist Church, I thought it was a rare single-pen house, but looking at in perspective, I believe it may have been a precinct house. A less likely option would be that it was a store, but for now, I’m identifying it as a precinct house. In this part of Georgia, such structures are sometimes known as courthouses. If anyone knows, please share and I’ll update the post.
One-room structures like this are often referred to locally as courthouses, though their primary purpose was always as a voting place, or precinct house. In theory, they could be used to temporarily hold people accused of crimes before transport to the county courthouse but this was rarely the case. This example, in good condition, served the Maynard’s Mill Road community.
This was served as the Brent schoolhouse until its closure in 1929. It was later home to the Brent women’s clubhouse and voting precinct. Brent had a post office from 1891-1904. It was named for Kentucky-born merchant Thomas Young Brent, Jr. (1841-1915), who moved to this area after the Civil War and married a widow, Jane Smith Clements (1836-1903).
I understand that the white structure on the left served as the Montrose voting precinct for many years.
I believe this was the voting precinct for Doles. It has the same architecture and layout as others I’ve documented; if not that, perhaps it was a farm office or barber shop.