This superb history takes us from the earliest settlement of Walton County, Florida, through its role in the wars and conflicts of the 19th century, to its development as a modern district. John Love McKinnon was a descendant of Colonel John L. McKinnon, who was one of the original founders of Walton County, being part of a trio of white men to first set foot upon the land. The colonel's expeditionary accounts are a significant source for the first part of this history, which discusses the characteristics of the land, the picturesque coastline, and its suitability for settlement. A clear appreciation for natural beauty graces this chronicle; the streams, fields, groves and woods of the land are evocatively described. At first sparsely populated, by the time of the U.S. Civil War many young men of the area were recruited for combat in the Confederacy. Though the area itself escaped skirmishing, several local residents fought in the large battles of the war, such as Chickamauga. On several occasions this history becomes biography, recounting the stories of individual lives and the legacy they left upon the community, be it in military prowess or with establishing the first schools and businesses.

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" ... provides updated county and town listings within the same overall state-by-state organization ... information on records and holdings for every county in the United States, as well as excellent maps from renowned mapmaker William Dollarhide ... The availability of census records such as federal, state, and territorial census reports is covered in detail ... Vital records are also discussed, including when and where they were kept and how"--Publisher decription.

In the tradition of Melissa Faye Greene and her award-winning Praying for Sheetrock, extraordinarily talented debut author Laura Wexler tells the story of the Moore's Ford Lynching in Walton County, Georgia in 1946—the last mass lynching in America, fully explored here for the first time. July 25, 1946. In Walton County, Georgia, a mob of white men commit one of the most heinous racial crimes in America's history: the shotgun murder of four black sharecroppers—two men and two women—at Moore's Ford Bridge. Fire in a Canebrake, the term locals used to describe the sound of the fatal gunshots, is the story of our nation's last mass lynching on record. More than a half century later, the lynchers' identities still remain unknown. Drawing from interviews, archival sources, and uncensored FBI reports, acclaimed journalist and author Laura Wexler takes readers deep into the heart of Walton County, bringing to life the characters who inhabited that infamous landscape—from sheriffs to white supremacists to the victims themselves—including a white man who claims to have been a secret witness to the crime. By turns a powerful historical document, a murder mystery, and a cautionary tale, Fire in a Canebrake ignites a powerful contemplation on race, humanity, history, and the epic struggle for truth.