Illustrated History of Early Clinton

Click here to read “None so Perfect as Clinton” by William Lamar Cawthon, Jr.  This article was published in the Autumn 2014 issue of Georgia Backroads.  Thanks to the publisher for permission to post this article.  


ABOUT THE AUTHOR

 In March 2016, Old Clinton lost a beloved son, William Lamar “Bill” Cawthon, Jr.  Bill was a descendant of some of the early families of Clinton, and a founding member and Board member of the Old Clinton Historical Society.  He was an attorney and, above all, a passionate historian of the agrarian South.

In the early 1980s, he wrote his Master’s thesis* on early 19th-century Clinton.   This carefully researched study gives a fascinating view of the early settlement, rapid growth, and progress of Clinton in its frontier years.  It is a classic in its field.

No one knew more about Clinton than Bill, and no one more deeply understood its historical importance.  His perception of Clinton is aptly expressed in the title of his final article about Clinton, “None so Perfect as Clinton.”

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*Cawthon, William Lamar, Jr.  “Clinton: County Seat of the Georgia Frontier, 1808-1821.” M.A. thesis, University of Georgia, 1984.