Georgia. Department of Archives and History

McIntosh County, Georgia, was created from Liberty County by an act of the state legislature in 1793. It was named for the McIntosh family. Darien became the county seat in 1816, the same year the city was incorporated. Madison County, Georgia, was created in 1811 by an act of the state legislature. Its land was originally ceded to colonial governor James Wright by Creek and Cherokee Indians and was organized into Wilkes and Franklin counties. The land was eventually divided into other counties; Madison was created from portions of Clarke, Elbert, Franklin, Jackson, and Oglethorpe counties. It was named for James Madison. Danielsville is the county seat; it was named for General Allen Daniel. Macon County, Georgia, was created by the state legislature in 1837 from parts of Houston and Marion counties. It was named for Nathaniel Macon.

William Scarbrough (1776-1838), planter and business promoter, was born in Pasquotank County, North Carolina, on February 18, 1776. He was the son of William and Lucy Sawyer Scarbrough, a North Carolina shipbuilder and trader who settled in Charleston, South Carolina. William married Julia Bernard on April 18, 1805 and had 10 children: Charlotte deBernier, William, William G., Julia Henrietta, Lucy, Mary T., Joseph, Eliza, Emily, and William Isaac. After serving a commercial apprenticeship under Severin Erichson in Denmark, England, Germany, and Spain during 1796-1798, Scarbrough moved to Savannah, Georgia, where he built a prosperous commercial and shipping business. Scarbrough was also the Danish vice-consul "for the ports of the state of Georgia," 1802-1820. He was a Savannah landowner and business and society leader with partners in Augusta, Georgia; New York City; and Liverpool, England. He also continued a working interest in his family's Belfast plantation in North Carolina. In the early 1800s, Scarbrough hired William Jay, architect, to build a massive Regency-style house on West Broad Street in Savannah; the house was completed in time for President James Monroe's visit to Savannah in May of 1819. In May, 1818, Scarbrough was instrumental in the formation of the Savannah Steam ship Company. The company bought a 320-ton sailing vessel and outfitted it with a steam engine, bent smokestack, and a side paddle wheel in New Jersey and New York. The vessel arrived in Savannah from New York by sail and steam in April of 1819 and was available for President Monroe to steam down the Savannah River to Tybee Island and back. On May 22, 1819, the S.S. Savannah steamed from Savannah and reached Liverpool on June 20, and arrived in St. Petersburg on September 15; it returned to the Savannah River on November 30. The S.S. Savannah made history as the first steamship to cross the Atlantic. It did not, however, prove prosperous for Scarbrough. Financial problems began to plague Scarbrough, and after the government refused to buy the steamship, he was forced to have the engines removed. He turned the ship into a sailing packet. On November 5, 1821, the S.S. Savannah wrecked off the coast of Fire Island, New York, a loss from which Scarbrough never recovered financially. He eventually sold the Belfast plantation and the West Broad Street house. By the age of 44, Scarbrough was a pauper. In the late 1820s and into the 1830s, Scarbrough recovered enough to hold a job as an agent for the Upper Darien Steam Rice and Saw Mill in Darien, Georgia. During this time, he wrote papers on the mechanism of the steam pump and causes of explosions in steam boilers. He also received a patent on April 8, 1835 for an invention improving the steam engine for use on boats with paddle wheels. In lat 1835, Scarbrough returned to Savannah and held several minor elected positions. On June 1, 1838, after leaving Savannah with his son-in-law, Godfrey Barnsley, on a business trip to Liverpool, William Scarbrough died in New York City.

Margaret Elizabeth Smith Rushing (1867-1957) was born in Savannah Georgia. Shem married Dennis T. Downing in 1884, and in 1900 she remarried to Charles H. Rushing. She was a member of Sacred Heart Church and the Ancient Order of Hibernians. Rushing worked as midwife in Savannah.

The Georgia Archives, located in Morrow, Georgia, preserves historical records which detail the history of the state of Georgia.

Richmond County, Georgia was established in 1777, replacing St. Pauls Parish. The county originally encompassed land that later became Richmond, Columbia, and McDuffie Counties, as well as parts of Warren, Glascock, and Jefferson Counties. Augusta became the county seat. The Richmond County Courthouse was established by a January 23, 1780 act of the Georgia Legislature for a courthouse jail, and seminary in Augusta.