Ludowici

History

The city's origins dated to the 1840s when the Atlantic and Gulf Railroad established a stop referred to as "Four and a Half". The station was constructed across from the house of a landowner named Allen Johnston, leading people to call the surrounding settlement Johnston Station by the time of Johnston's death in 1859. In 1898 there was an effort to rename the area Liberty City to help distinguish it from other places with 'Johnston' in their names. In following years both names were used interchangeably. In 1900 the settlement's population was about 300 and featured telegraph, post, and express offices. Racial tensions were a source of conflict, with at least two white and three black citizens reported to have been killed during a riot that summer. In the fall of 1900 an African American, H. F. McKay, was elected to the Georgia State Senate to represent Ludowici as part of what was then Liberty County, Georgia. In 1902, H.B. Skeele of the Ludowici Roofing Tile Company traveled to Savannah and announced that his company planned to open a roof tile factory in Liberty City the following spring. At the time the company operated a factory in Chicago Heights, Illinois, and Skeele said he was drawn to start their second location in Georgia due to the warmer climate, large clay deposits, and the presence of black workers who could be paid less than the white employees who the company hired further north. When the community was raising money to cover the cost of constructing a high school in 1905, the Ludowici company made a generous donation of funds and roofing material. Later that year the city, which had previously been an unincorporated community, was incorporated as Ludowici, Georgia, in the company's honor. The Ludowici tile factory covered more than and employed…

Geography

Ludowici, in southeast Georgia, According to the United States Census Bureau, Ludowici has a total area of , of which , or 0.54%, are water. The city drains west to Jones Creek and east to Doctors Creek, both tributaries of the Altamaha River.

Most-observed species

• Northern Cardinal

  Cardinalis cardinalis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  214
• Northern Mockingbird

  Mimus polyglottos (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  154
• Carolina Wren

  Thryothorus ludovicianus (Latham, 1790) · Aves
  151
• Turkey Vulture

  Cathartes aura (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  146
• Mourning Dove

  Zenaida macroura (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  144
• White-eyed Vireo

  Vireo griseus (Boddaert, 1783) · Aves
  117
• Red-bellied Woodpecker

  Melanerpes carolinus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  116
• Blue Jay

  Cyanocitta cristata (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  98

Most recent

• M 3.9 — 2022-06-18
  7 km E of Stillmore, Georgia
• M 3.6 — 2003-07-13
  6 km N of Cobbtown, Georgia