Hahira

History

According to legend, the town of Hahira was named after a local cotton plantation. The planter was said to have named his estate after a West African village, Hairaairee, which was described to him by an English traveler. The name may be derived from Pi-HaHiroth, a place mentioned in the Hebrew Bible. According to a local legend, the name originated with a locomotive engineer called Hira, who was hailed by friends with, "Hey, Hira." The Georgia General Assembly incorporated Hahira in 1891, with Henry Briggs Lawson serving as the first mayor until 1907. By the time of its incorporation, several stores had already been established due to an influx of residents in the mid-1880s. In 1904, a bank was opened, followed by a newspaper in 1906. Prior to 1904, there was one practicing doctor in the town during the 1890s. As a predominantly agricultural area, Hahira residents largely relied on their own vegetable gardens, raised hogs for meat, and owned milk cows. The primary cash crop was cotton, which remained so until the early 1920s when a Boll weevil infestation devastated the crop. Subsequently, tobacco became the main source of income for farmers despite traditionally only been grown in Virginia and North Carolina. In the late 1920s, a group of tobacco businessmen in Hahira established a cigarette manufacturing facility instead of shipping their products to the northern U.S. Their cigarette packs featured a Native American man on the front and a wigwam on the back. However, during the Great Depression, the cigarette manufacturers sold their shares in the company to the Julep Cigarette Company. Hahira then became the manufacturing site for nationally distributed "Happy Days" cigarettes for several years. The cigarette factory was situated alongside the Norfolk Southern…

Geography

Hahira is located at (30.990537, -83.371433). U.S. Route 41 passes through the center of town as Church Street, leading north to Cecil and south to Valdosta, the county seat. Interstate 75 passes through the west side of Hahira, with access from Exit 29 (Georgia State Route 122). I-75 leads north to Tifton and south past Valdosta to Lake City, Florida. State Route 122 is Hahira's Main Street and leads east to Lakeland and west to Pavo. According to the United States Census Bureau, Hahira has a total area of , of which are land and , or 4.00%, are water. Franks Creek runs through the westernmost part of the city and is part of the Little River–Withlachoochee River–Suwannee River watershed, flowing to the Gulf of Mexico.

Race & ethnicity

Largest nearby schools

• Sallas Mahone Elementary
  Elementary · Valdosta · 1,078 students · 14.4:1 ratio
• Hahira Middle School
  Middle · Hahira · 859 students · 15.3:1 ratio
• Hahira Elementary School
  Elementary · Hahira · 807 students · 14.9:1 ratio
• Pine Grove Middle School
  Middle · Valdosta · 742 students · 14:1 ratio
• Pine Grove Elementary School
  Elementary · Valdosta · 664 students · 12.3:1 ratio