George Sibbald, a Maryland businessman residing in Georgia announced the formation of the Georgia Asylum Company. Sibbald had "acquired" over 500,000 acres of pine barren land in Georgia - 140,000 acres of which he had purchased at a tax sale in Montgomery County for thirty dollars. Sibbald proposed to bring poor immigrants in from northern states and from Europe to settle these lands. He likened the climate of the region to that of southern France and Itlay and claimed that cotton, wheat, sweet potatoes, and peaches, as well as exotic crops such as figs, almonds, olives, oranges, and lemons, could be profitably grown there. His company was to have lands cleared, houses built, and sawmills, gristmills, cotton gins, and blacksmith shops in operable condition by the time the settlers arrived to purchase the lands. Sibbald even received a temporary suspension of taxes on lands from the legislature, provided he brought in a requisite number of settlers within a given time. Needless to say, this harebrained scheme never got off the ground. A few years later the legislature ordered Sibbald's "Lands" sold for the accumulated taxes owed, implicitly recognizing that it would be difficult to find buyers. Georgia land surveying history and law / Farris W. Cadle p. 103-104.
From the description of Georgia Asylum Land Company papers, 1802, 1923. (University of Georgia). WorldCat record id: 437402948
