Donalsonville, Georgia

Donalsonville, Georgia
City
Donalsonville City Hall
Flag Seal
Motto:  The Gateway to Lake Seminole [1]
Location in Seminole County and the state of Georgia
Coordinates: 31°2′27″N84°52′42″W / 31.04083°N 84.87833°W / 31.04083; -84.87833
Country	United States
State	Georgia
County	Seminole
Government
• Type	Council-Manager
•  Mayor	Ronald Johnson
Area [2]
• Total	3.99 sq mi (10.34 km2)
• Land	3.97 sq mi (10.29 km2)
• Water	0.02 sq mi (0.05 km2)
Elevation	148 ft (45 m)
Population  (2020)
• Total	2,833
• Density	713.42/sq mi (275.43/km2)
Time zone	UTC−5 (Eastern (EST))
• Summer (DST)	UTC−4 (EDT)
ZIP Codes	39845
Area code	229
FIPS code	13-23368 [3]
GNIS feature ID	0331568 [4]
Website	donalsonvillega.org

Donalsonville is a city in and the county seat of Seminole County, Georgia, United States. ^[5] The population was 2,833 in 2020.

History

Donalsonville was originally part of Decatur County. It is named after John Ernest Donalson (1846–1920), also known as Jonathan or John E. Donalson, a prominent businessman of the area. Donalson built the first lumber mill in Donalsonville, Donalson Lumber Company. He also built homes and a commissary for the workers of the mill. The lumber company paved the way for the town's growth.

Donalsonville was first chartered as a town in Georgia on December 8, 1897. ^[6] When Seminole County was formed in January 1920, Donalsonville was named as its county seat. By August 1922, the Town of Donalsonville became known as the City of Donalsonville, with the charter passing on August 19, 1922.

The Seminole County Courthouse was erected in 1922 and is still standing today. The Courthouse is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. (Wolfe)

Geography

Donalsonville is located at 31°2′27″N84°52′42″W / 31.04083°N 84.87833°W / 31.04083; -84.87833 . ^[7]

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 4.0 square miles (10 km²), of which 4.0 square miles (10 km²) is land and 0.25% is water. The city is located 20 minutes north of Lake Seminole, 62 miles (100 km) south of Albany, 36 miles (58 km) east of Dothan, Alabama and 107 miles (172 km) west of Valdosta.

Climate

Climate data for Donalsonville, Georgia, 1991–2020 normals, extremes 2001–present
Month	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year
Record high °F (°C)	83 (28)	86 (30)	91 (33)	95 (35)	101 (38)	107 (42)	104 (40)	105 (41)	102 (39)	97 (36)	91 (33)	84 (29)	107 (42)
Mean maximum °F (°C)	77.6 (25.3)	80.2 (26.8)	86.2 (30.1)	90.6 (32.6)	96.2 (35.7)	100.2 (37.9)	99.5 (37.5)	99.9 (37.7)	97.5 (36.4)	92.6 (33.7)	84.7 (29.3)	80.2 (26.8)	101.6 (38.7)
Mean daily maximum °F (°C)	59.0 (15.0)	64.5 (18.1)	71.5 (21.9)	77.8 (25.4)	85.4 (29.7)	89.4 (31.9)	91.3 (32.9)	91.0 (32.8)	87.2 (30.7)	79.9 (26.6)	69.8 (21.0)	62.3 (16.8)	77.4 (25.2)
Daily mean °F (°C)	49.0 (9.4)	53.7 (12.1)	59.7 (15.4)	66.4 (19.1)	74.4 (23.6)	80.1 (26.7)	82.0 (27.8)	81.8 (27.7)	77.4 (25.2)	68.6 (20.3)	58.2 (14.6)	52.1 (11.2)	67.0 (19.4)
Mean daily minimum °F (°C)	38.9 (3.8)	42.9 (6.1)	48.0 (8.9)	55.0 (12.8)	63.4 (17.4)	70.9 (21.6)	72.7 (22.6)	72.6 (22.6)	67.6 (19.8)	57.3 (14.1)	46.6 (8.1)	42.0 (5.6)	56.5 (13.6)
Mean minimum °F (°C)	23.4 (−4.8)	28.3 (−2.1)	33.3 (0.7)	42.1 (5.6)	52.9 (11.6)	65.7 (18.7)	67.4 (19.7)	67.4 (19.7)	56.4 (13.6)	42.3 (5.7)	30.6 (−0.8)	28.8 (−1.8)	22.5 (−5.3)
Record low °F (°C)	18 (−8)	21 (−6)	24 (−4)	34 (1)	45 (7)	59 (15)	60 (16)	62 (17)	46 (8)	34 (1)	23 (−5)	19 (−7)	18 (−8)
Average precipitation inches (mm)	4.79 (122)	4.84 (123)	5.26 (134)	4.48 (114)	3.15 (80)	5.81 (148)	6.13 (156)	5.69 (145)	5.37 (136)	3.10 (79)	3.61 (92)	4.70 (119)	56.93 (1,448)
Average precipitation days (≥ 0.01 in)	7.8	6.9	5.8	5.9	6.8	9.9	11.1	10.9	6.3	5.2	5.4	8.2	90.2
Source 1: NOAA [8]
Source 2: National Weather Service (mean maxima/minima, precip days 2006–2020) [9]

Demographics

Historical population

Census	Pop.	Note	%±
1900	519		—
1910	747		43.9%
1920	1,031		38.0%
1930	1,183		14.7%
1940	1,718		45.2%
1950	2,569		49.5%
1960	2,621		2.0%
1970	2,907		10.9%
1980	3,320		14.2%
1990	2,761		−16.8%
2000	2,796		1.3%
2010	2,650		−5.2%
2020	2,833		6.9%
U.S. Decennial Census [10] 1850-1870 [11] 1870-1880 [12] 1890-1910 [13] 1920-1930 [14] 1940 [15] 1950 [16] 1960 [17] 1970 [18] 1980 [19] 1990 [20] 2000 [21] 2010 [22]

Donalsonville racial makeup as of 2020 ^[23]

Race	Num.	Perc.
White	904	31.91%
Black or African American	1,734	61.21%
Native American	1	0.04%
Asian	59	2.08%
Other/Mixed	53	1.87%
Hispanic or Latino	82	2.89%

As of the 2020 United States census, there were 2,833 people, 872 households, and 542 families residing in the city.

Economy

Donalsonville has about a 63% high school graduate rate with about 52% in the work force. The biggest industries are education, health, and social services. (Georgia.gov) The average median income for households according to the U.S. Census report in 2000 was $20,687 and median family income was $25,679, with the average household size around 2 and family size around 3 people.

According to 2012 data from the Donalsonville Chamber of Commerce, ^[24] the top five employers in the city are as follows:

Employer	Employees
Donalsonville Hospital, Inc.	350
Ponder Enterprises Inc.	250
Lewis M. Carter, Inc.	150
American Peanut Growers Group, LLC	80
JH Harvey Company	30

Education

The Seminole County School District holds pre-school to grade twelve, and consists of one elementary school and one middle-high school. ^[25] The district has 120 full-time teachers and over 1,754 students. ^[26]

• Seminole County Elementary School
• Seminole County Middle/High School

Public library

Donalsonville is home to the Seminole County Public Library. ^[27] The library serves the citizens of Donalsonville and Seminole County with a collection of print and audiovisual materials. The library is located at 103 W. 4th Street in Donalsonville.

The Alday murders

Donalsonville was the site of the second largest mass murder in Georgia history (the largest being the Woolfolk murders in 1887). On May 14, 1973, Carl Isaacs, his half brother Wayne Coleman, and fellow prisoner George Dungee escaped from the Maryland State Prison. They were later joined by Carl's younger brother, 15-year-old Billy Isaacs. ^[28] While en route to Florida the men came upon the Alday farm in Donalsonville. They stopped at a mobile home owned by Jerry Alday and his wife Mary, to look for gas as there was a gas pump on the property. ^[29]

Alday and his father Ned Alday arrived as the trailer was being ransacked and were ordered inside, then shot to death in separate bedrooms. Jerry's brother Jimmy arrived at the trailer on a tractor and he too was led inside and forced to lay on a couch, then shot. Later, Jerry's 25-year-old wife Mary arrived at the trailer as the men attempted to hide the tractor. She was restrained, while Jerry's brother Chester and uncle Aubrey arrived in a pickup truck. The criminals accosted the pair still in their truck and forced them inside the trailer where they were also shot to death. Mary Alday was raped on her kitchen table before being taken out to a wooded area miles away where she was raped again and then finally murdered. ^[30]

Billy Isaacs cooperated with prosecutors and received a twenty-year sentence for armed robbery. ^[31] Carl Isaacs, Coleman, and Dungee were tried by jury in Seminole County in 1973, convicted, and sentenced to death. All three convictions and sentences were overturned by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in 1985, on the grounds that the pool of local jurors had been tainted by excess pretrial publicity. ^[32] All three defendants were re-tried in 1988 and were again convicted; however, only Carl Isaacs was sentenced to death, Coleman and Dungee receiving life sentences.

Carl Isaacs was executed on May 6, 2003, at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison in Jackson, by lethal injection. ^[33] At the time of his execution, aged 49, he was the longest-serving death row inmate anywhere in the US, having spent 30 years on death row prior to execution. ^{[34] [35]}

Billy Isaacs was released from prison in 1993, ^[36] and died in Florida on May 4, 2009. George Dungee died in prison on April 4, 2006. Only Wayne Coleman remains incarcerated (as of 2023).

The murders were the subject on an award-winning 1977 documentary called Murder One directed by Fleming 'Tex' Fuller. ^[37] Fuller then wrote a screenplay, which was filmed as the 1988 film, Murder One , starring Henry Thomas. ^[38] The 1988 film was widely released in North America, but it wasn't released in southwest Georgia near where the killings took place, so as not to offend people. ^[38]

Janice Daugharty published a fictionalized account of the murders, Going to Jackson (2010, ).

Friendship United Methodist Church

Religion

By the 1900s, the need for churches arose. The first church was erected in Donalsonville in 1850, the Friendship United Methodist Church. In the beginning the Methodist Church served as a meeting place for all Protestant denominations. Later, the First Presbyterian Church of Donalsonville was established in January 1898 with 25 members. On August 4, 1902, 18 people helped to create the First Baptist Church of Donalsonville. The Church of The Nazarene, originally called "The Holiness Church," was established in October 1902. The meetings of the Church of the Nazarene were actually held in a member's house until 1903, when a building was erected. The first black church in Donalsonville was created in 1895, the Live Oak African Methodist Episcopal Church. Eventually, the number totalled thirteen.

Notable people

• John and Clarence Anglin – brothers who escaped from Alcatraz prison in 1962
• Alfred Corn, poet and essayist, born Bainbridge and lived in Donalsonville and Valdosta
• Bacarri Rambo – former Miami Dolphins safety
• Phillip Daniels – former NFL player, current Assistant Defensive Line Coach for the Philadelphia Eagles

References

1. ""Gateway to Lake Seminole" – Donalsonville, GA – Welcome Signs on Waymarking.com" . Retrieved July 27, 2016.
2. "2020 U.S. Gazetteer Files". United States Census Bureau. Retrieved December 18, 2021.
3. "U.S. Census website". United States Census Bureau . Retrieved January 31, 2008.
4. "US Board on Geographic Names". United States Geological Survey. October 25, 2007. Retrieved January 31, 2008.
5. "Find a County". National Association of Counties. Archived from the original on May 31, 2011. Retrieved June 7, 2011.
6. Krakow, Kenneth K. (1975). Georgia Place-Names: Their History and Origins (PDF). Macon, GA: Winship Press. p. 63. ISBN   0-915430-00-2.
7. "US Gazetteer files: 2010, 2000, and 1990". United States Census Bureau. February 12, 2011. Retrieved April 23, 2011.
8. "U.S. Climate Normals Quick Access – Station: Donalsonville, GA". National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Retrieved March 4, 2023.
9. "NOAA Online Weather Data – NWS Tallahassee". National Weather Service. Retrieved March 4, 2023.
10. "Decennial Census of Population and Housing by Decade". United States Census Bureau.
11. "1870 Census of Population - Georgia - Population of Civil Divisions less than Counties" (PDF). United States Census Bureau. 1870.
12. "1880 Census of Population - Georgia - Population of Civil Divisions less than Counties" (PDF). United States Census Bureau. 1880.
13. "1910 Census of Population - Georgia" (PDF). United States Census Bureau. 1910.
14. "1930 Census of Population - Georgia" (PDF). United States Census Bureau. 1930. pp. 251–256.
15. "1940 Census of Population - Georgia" (PDF). United States Census Bureau. 1940.
16. "1950 Census of Population - Georgia" (PDF). United States Census Bureau. 1950.
17. "1960 Census of Population - Population of County Subdivisions - Georgia" (PDF). United States Census Bureau. 1960.
18. "1970 Census of Population - Population of County Subdivisions - Georgia" (PDF). United States Census Bureau. 1970.
19. "1980 Census of Population - Number of Inhabitants - Georgia" (PDF). United States Census Bureau. 1980.
20. "1990 Census of Population - Summary Social, Economic, and Housing Characteristics - Georgia" (PDF). United States Census Bureau. 1990.
21. "2000 Census of Population - General Population Characteristics - Georgia" (PDF). United States Census Bureau. 2000.
22. "2010 Census of Population - General Population Characteristics - Georgia" (PDF). United States Census Bureau. 2010.
23. "Explore Census Data". data.census.gov. Retrieved December 9, 2021.
24. "Donalsonville Chamber of Commerce" . Retrieved January 4, 2013.
25. Georgia Board of Education ^{[ permanent dead link ‍]}, Retrieved June 26, 2010.
26. School Stats, Retrieved June 26, 2010.
27. "Homepage". Southwest Georgia Regional Library System. Retrieved July 21, 2017.
28. Patterson, Catherine (July 14, 2015). "42 years after Alday murders, no closure". DONALSONVILLE, GA: Raycom Media. Retrieved May 15, 2017.
29. "Attorney General Baker Announces Execution of Carl Isaacs, Georgia's Longest Serving Death Row Inmate | Office of Attorney General Chris Carr". law.georgia.gov. Department of Law | State of Georgia. May 6, 2003. Retrieved May 15, 2017.
30. Stillman, Jack (May 20, 1973). "An Ordinary Day Became a Night of Mass Murder". Vol. 66, no. 218. Donalsonville, GA: The Ledger. Associated Press. p. 16. Retrieved May 15, 2017.
31. "'Laughed' at mercy plea | Youth accuses brother of slaughtering family". Chicago Tribune. Donalsonville, Georgia. UPI. January 3, 1974.
32. Schwartz, Jerry (January 26, 1988). "Man Convicted Again in Killing of Georgia Family". New York Times. Retrieved May 15, 2017.
33. "Carl Junior Isaacs #852" . Retrieved July 27, 2016.
34. "Aldays see killer executed | chronicle.augusta.com". chronicle.augusta.com. ATHENS, Georgia. Morris News Service. March 10, 2003. Retrieved May 15, 2017.
35. "Carl Isaacs Executed". todayingeorgiahistory.org/. Retrieved May 15, 2017.
36. Apperson, Jay (October 21, 1993). "After 20 years, freedom nears Judge orders parole for Isaacs, 36, who took part in deadly '73 rampage". The Baltimore Sun. Retrieved May 15, 2017.
37. Morrison, Bill (February 16, 1978). "Kinstonian honored for broadcasting excellence". The News & Observer . Raleigh, North Carolina. p. 31. Retrieved March 7, 2022.
38. "Too close to home". The Orlando Sentinel . October 16, 1988. p. A-20. Retrieved March 7, 2022. The movie Murder One, based on the 1973 Alday family slayings ...

External links

• Official Website of Donalsonville-Seminole County Chamber of Commerce Includes Donalsonville and Iron City
• Seminole County School System includes Donalsonville, Iron City and Seminole County
• Seminole County Public Library