Petersburg, Georgia

Petersburg, Georgia was an upriver market town located in Wilkes County, Georgia, United States (now Elbert County). Now dead or defunct, it was named after Petersburg, Virginia, and founded by Dionysius Oliver in 1786 to serve the rapidly growing Broad River Valley region of Georgia (Coulter 1965:32). It enjoyed connection via pole boat with Augusta, Georgia, following the Savannah River (Coulter 1965:49). Petersburg gained importance as a tobacco inspection station, vital to local planters in obtaining good prices for their casked produce. During the peak of its prosperity, from 1800 to 1810, it was the third-largest city in Georgia, after Savannah and Augusta (Jones Jr. 1878:233-239).

Sibbald described the town in his 1801 Pinelands of Georgia:

"PETERSBURG, in point of situation and commercial consequence is second only to Augusta. It is situated on a point of Land, formed by Broad river, where it empties into Savannah river; is a handsome well built Town and presents to the view of the astonished traveller, a Town which has risen out of the Woods in a few years, as if by enchantment: It has two Warehouses for the Inspection of Tobacco: Is fifty miles North west from Augusta. On another point of land on the opposite side of Broad river is the town of Lincoln [Lisbon?], which has an Inspection for Tobacco, some Stores, &c. On the opposite shore in South-Carolina, is the town of Vienna, which has a number of houses, Stores, a tobacco-inspection, &c.' (Sibbald 1801:62-63)

Longstreet described the town ca. 1806 to 1809 in connection with an annual exhibition at Moses Waddel's nearby Willington Academy.

"Petersburg was quite an active, busy, commercial little town. It was situated in the fork of the Savannah and Broad Rivers, and contained some eight or ten stores, with the usual supplement of grog shops, and the very unusual supplement of a billiard-table. Notwithstanding these last, the citizens of the place were generally remarkable for their refinement, respectability, intelligence and hospitality. The dwelling houses far outnumbered the stores and shops. It was separated from Lisbon by Broad River, and from Vienna by the Savannah. Lisbon we believe could never boast of more than two stores and a groggery, and as many dwellings. Vienna surpassed Lisbon in everything, but exactly how far, and in what we are not able to say, except in John Glover's house and store, which had no match in Lisbon." (Longstreet 1864:4 and 129)

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