A town named Pond Town was established in 1812 along the stage coach in the area that is now the location of the Ellaville City Cemetery. The area was then part of the lands belonging to the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. In 1821, after the Treaty of Indian Springs the area became part of the state of Georgia. In 1826, it served as temporary county seat for Lee County upon the creation of the then vast county. Pond Town soon became a lively town noted for horse racing and whiskey. In 1831, the area became part of Sumter County.
Ellaville was founded in 1857 as county seat of the newly formed Schley County. It was incorporated as a town in 1859.[5] The community was named after the daughter of a first settler.[6]
In January 1911 a white man died in a Black owned store. He was taken for his own safety to Columbus for three months but when he returned three months later a mob 200 strong lynched Dawson Jordan, Charles Pickett, and Murray Burton as well as burning down three black lodges, a church and a school.[7]
October 1912, a prisoner seized from the Sumter County sheriff near Oglethorpe was hung from a bridge and shot dead
June 1913, twenty-four-year-old Will Redding was dragged from the Ellaville's city jail strung up on a street corner and riddled with bullets.[8]
As of the 2020 United States census, there were 1,595 people, 610 households, and 438 families residing in the city.
Education
Schley County School District
The Schley County School District holds pre-school to grade twelve, and consists of one elementary school and one middle-high school.[12] The district has 66 full-time teachers and over 1,126 students.[13]
Grant, Donald Lee (2001). The Way it was in the South: The Black Experience in Georgia. University of Georgia Press. ISBN9780820323299. - Total pages: 624
