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History · Toomsboro

Toomsboro’s post office opened in 1851, and 11% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1916 on, and the census since 1880.

1851first post office
0on the National Register
11%homes built before 1940
1old photo or paper
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Toomsboro’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers

How Toomsboro began

When was Toomsboro founded?

1851

The Toomsboro post office opened in 1851, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 183 in 18802020 census: 383175 years
Founding year: the first Toomsboro post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Toomsboro’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenOnly 1 old photo is in the public archives. The rest are in attics and albums.Shrank, then grewLost two-thirds of its people between 1880 and 1900, then grew 7-fold.On the map since 19163 editions of the USGS map, 1916 to 1973. Watch Toomsboro change.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Toomsboro’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Toomsboro’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Date a photo1 archive item has no date. Guess the decade.+2Retake an old viewJackson House, Georgia Highway 112: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
People over time

Toomsboro, census by census

020040060080018801900192019401960198020002020183 in 1880Low: 50

Lost two-thirds of its people between 1880 and 1900, then grew 7-fold.

14 censuses, 1880–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Toomsboro’s Wikipedia page.

On the map

Toomsboro on the map, 1916 to 1973

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Toomsboro. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Toomsboro on the 1916 USGS mapToomsboro on the 1920 USGS mapToomsboro on the 1973 USGS map1916Irwinton sheet · 1:62,500

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Toomsboro.

The story

How Toomsboro came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Toomsboro.

Read it all →

Toomsboro was founded when the Central of Georgia Railway was extended to that point. Its railroad terminal was built in 1869.

On August 30, 1871, Matthew Deason, a white man, and an African American woman who was possibly his wife, Serena Dul Cat C. Johnson (Georgia Marriages 1699–1944 in Wilkinson County Georgia) were lynched in Toomsboro by members of the Ku Klux Klan. Deason, a former Confederate soldier, was the elected sheriff of Wilkinson County. It was the first documented lynching of a black woman in Georgia after the Civil War.

The Georgia General Assembly incorporated Toomsboro as a town in 1904. The community is named for 18th-century Georgia politician Robert Toombs.

ChaptersFreedom, Georgia

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

From the old history books

What they wrote about Toomsboro in 1930

Passages that mention Toomsboro, cut from the printed page as they were published.

23, 1921. He, likewise, served several years as Councilman and also as Mayor of Toomsboro, and acted as Clerk of Toomsboro Bap-
History of Wilkinson County1930 · page 557Read the page →
Read the text

23, 1921. He, likewise, served several years as Councilman and also as Mayor of Toomsboro, and acted as Clerk of Toomsboro Bap-

Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Among these Virginians may be mentioned a settlement around the present site of Toomsboro, where it seems that there was an entire community which was composed of. Virginians and it is probable that Charles Culpepper and his brother, Sampson Culpepper, Joel Culpepper, John Ross, James Ross and othe…
History of Wilkinson County1930 · page 162Read the page →
Read the text

Among these Virginians may be mentioned a settlement around the present site of Toomsboro, where it seems that there was an entire community which was composed of. Virginians and it is probable that Charles Culpepper and his brother, Sampson Culpepper, Joel Culpepper, John Ross, James Ross and others came in a body from that State and purchased lands near each other.

Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.

Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.

Timeline

Toomsboro, 1851 to 1960

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1851Post officeThe Toomsboro post office opens
  3. 20th century
  4. 1916On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  5. 1960CensusPopulation peaks at 764
By decade

Toomsboro, decade by decade

Date unknown1 to date
Jackson House, Georgia Highway 112Date?Jackson House, Georgia Highway 112
Then & now

Stand where they stood

No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.

Jackson House, Georgia Highway 112
Retake this viewJackson House, Georgia Highway 112

Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Toomsboro’s page.

Retake this view · +15
Famous people

Famous people close to Toomsboro

Nobody well known was born in Toomsboro itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.

See all →
Marjorie Taylor GreeneAmerican politician · b. 1974
Elijah MuhammadAmerican religious leader · b. 1897
J
Jeralean TalleyAmerican supercentenarian · b. 1899
Anthony JohnsonAmerican mixed martial artist · b. 1984
Herbert Jefferson Jr.American actor · b. 1946
C
Celena Mondie-MilnerAmerican athletics competitor · b. 1968

Questions about Toomsboro’s history

What year was Toomsboro founded?

The Toomsboro post office opened in 1851, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
Start a conversation
Sources

Where this page comes from

Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →

From the Library of Congress (1), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.