Brooklet, Georgia
Brooklet, Bulloch County, Georgia
Marker Inscription
Brooklet, Georgia. Brooklet, known for its avenue of oak trees, took shape at the end of the 19th century on property owned by A. J. Lee. Optimistic citizens built a new town beside the recently completed Savannah & Statesboro Railroad. Dr. H. K. Thayer, an early resident, asked the U.S. Post Office accept the name of Brooklet for the new town, since a brook ran through it. Before 1899, the area was called Nellwood. The post office was at the home of J. C. Cromley. Brooklet quickly grew, as businesses opened under the names of Clisby Cone, W. C. Parker, J. A. Warnock, and Parrish & Pretorius, Dr. J. M. McElveen and Dr. John I. Lane moved to the new town. When the town was incorporated in 1907, Dr. Lane was elected its first mayor. Brooklet became a thriving community in eastern Bulloch County with a school, bank, electric plant, telephone company, general merchandise stores, and a large lumber mill owned by J. N. Shearouse. His Shearouse Railroad intersected with the S & S Railroad near the center of town. Early churches were Methodist (1904), Baptist (1907), St. Marys AME Church (1907), and Primitive Baptist (1917). Little Bethel Baptist (1893) located to Brooklet in 1953. Supported by the Jack N. & Addie D. Averitt Foundation
Erected by Bulloch County Historical Society
The Story
Brooklet took shape in the late 1890s along the new Savannah & Statesboro Railroad, on land owned by A. J. Lee and once known as Nellwood. An early resident, Dr. H. K. Thayer, won the town its name from the brook that ran through it. By its 1907 incorporation, Brooklet had a school, bank, telephone company, churches, and a large lumber mill, growing into a thriving community in eastern Bulloch County.
Why it matters
Its story is a textbook example of how the railroad conjured whole towns into being across the turn-of-the-century South.
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Related people
- · A. J. Lee
- · John I. Lane
Themes & tags
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