Donalsonville, Georgia

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Donalsonville, Georgia
City
Donalsonville City Hall
Donalsonville City Hall
Template:Infobox settlement/columns
Motto(s): 
The Gateway to Lake Seminole[1]
Location in Seminole County and the state of Georgia
Location in Seminole County and the state of Georgia
Coordinates: 31°2′27″N 84°52′42″W / 31.04083°N 84.87833°W / 31.04083; -84.87833Coordinates: 31°2′27″N 84°52′42″W / 31.04083°N 84.87833°W / 31.04083; -84.87833
CountryUnited States
StateGeorgia
CountySeminole
Government
 • TypeCouncil-Manager
 • MayorTwynette Reynolds
Area
[2]
 • TotalTemplate:Infobox settlement/areadisp
 • LandTemplate:Infobox settlement/areadisp
 • WaterTemplate:Infobox settlement/areadisp
Elevation
Template:Infobox settlement/lengthdisp
Population
 (2020)
 • Total2,833
 • DensityTemplate:Infobox settlement/densdisp
Time zoneUTC−5 (Eastern (EST))
 • Summer (DST)UTC−4 (EDT)
ZIP Codes
39845
Area code229
FIPS code13-23368[3]
GNIS feature ID0331568[4]
Websitedonalsonvillega.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.[citation needed]

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.[citation needed] By August 1922, the Town of Donalsonville became known as the City of Donalsonville, with the charter passing on August 19, 1922.[citation needed]

The Seminole County Courthouse was erected in 1922 and is still standing today. The Courthouse is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.[citation needed]

Geography

Donalsonville is located at 31°2′27″N 84°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.[citation needed]

Climate

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Demographics

Template:US Census population

2020 census

As of the 2020 census, Donalsonville had a population of 2,833. The median age was 39.1 years. 25.3% of residents were under the age of 18 and 16.8% of residents were 65 years of age or older. For every 100 females there were 86.4 males, and for every 100 females age 18 and over there were 77.9 males age 18 and over.[8][9]

0.0% of residents lived in urban areas, while 100.0% lived in rural areas.[10]

There were 1,088 households in Donalsonville, of which 35.4% had children under the age of 18 living in them. Of all households, 27.5% were married-couple households, 19.7% were households with a male householder and no spouse or partner present, and 46.9% were households with a female householder and no spouse or partner present. About 33.4% of all households were made up of individuals and 13.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. As of the 2020 census, there were 542 families residing in the city.[8]

There were 1,290 housing units, of which 15.7% were vacant. The homeowner vacancy rate was 2.1% and the rental vacancy rate was 8.7%.[8]

Racial composition as of the 2020 census[9]
Race Number Percent
White 910 32.1%
Black or African American 1,753 61.9%
American Indian and Alaska Native 2 0.1%
Asian 60 2.1%
Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander 1 0.0%
Some other race 47 1.7%
Two or more races 60 2.1%
Hispanic or Latino (of any race) 82 2.9%

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,[11] 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.[12] The district has 120 full-time teachers and over 1,754 students.[13]

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

Public library

Donalsonville is home to the Seminole County Public Library.[14]

Alday family murders

Template:Main articles 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.[15] 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.[16]

Jerry 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.[17]

Billy Isaacs cooperated with prosecutors and received a forty-year sentence for armed robbery and burglary.[18] 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.[19] 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.[citation needed]

Carl Isaacs was executed on May 6, 2003, at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison in Jackson, by lethal injection.[20] 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.[21][22]

Billy Isaacs was released from prison in 1993,[23] and died in Florida on May 4, 2009. George Dungee died in prison on April 4, 2006.[citation needed] Only Wayne Coleman remains incarcerated (as of 2023).[citation needed]

The murders were the subject on an award-winning 1977 documentary called Murder One directed by Fleming 'Tex' Fuller.[24] Fuller then wrote a screenplay, which was filmed as the 1988 film, Murder One, starring Henry Thomas.[25] 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.[25]

Janice Daugharty published a fictionalized account of the murders, Going to Jackson (2010, [1]).

File:Friendship United Methodist Church, Donalsonville.JPG
Friendship United Methodist Church

Religion

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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

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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. ↑ "Donalsonville". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey. Retrieved February 24, 2026.
  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. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 "2020 Decennial Census Demographic Profile (DP1)". United States Census Bureau. 2021. Retrieved April 29, 2026.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 "2020 Decennial Census Redistricting Data (Public Law 94-171)". United States Census Bureau. 2021. Retrieved April 29, 2026.
  10. ↑ "2020 Decennial Census Demographic and Housing Characteristics (DHC)". United States Census Bureau. 2023. Retrieved April 29, 2026.
  11. ↑ "Donalsonville Chamber of Commerce". Retrieved January 4, 2013.
  12. ↑ Georgia Board of Education[permanent dead link], Retrieved June 26, 2010.
  13. ↑ School Stats, Retrieved June 26, 2010.
  14. ↑ "Homepage". Southwest Georgia Regional Library System. Retrieved July 21, 2017.
  15. ↑ Patterson, Catherine (July 14, 2015). "42 years after Alday murders, no closure". DONALSONVILLE, GA: Raycom Media. Retrieved May 15, 2017.
  16. ↑ "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. Archived from the original on August 12, 2020. Retrieved May 15, 2017.
  17. ↑ Stillman, Jack (May 20, 1973). "An Ordinary Day Became a Night of Mass Murder". 66 (218). Donalsonville, GA: The Ledger. Associated Press. p. 16. Retrieved May 15, 2017.
  18. ↑ "'Laughed' at mercy plea | Youth accuses brother of slaughtering family". Chicago Tribune. Donalsonville, Georgia. UPI. January 3, 1974.
  19. ↑ Schwartz, Jerry (January 26, 1988). "Man Convicted Again in Killing of Georgia Family". New York Times. Retrieved May 15, 2017.
  20. ↑ "Carl Junior Isaacs #852". Retrieved July 27, 2016.
  21. ↑ "Aldays see killer executed | chronicle.augusta.com". chronicle.augusta.com. ATHENS, Georgia. Morris News Service. March 10, 2003. Retrieved May 15, 2017.
  22. ↑ "Carl Isaacs Executed". todayingeorgiahistory.org/. Retrieved May 15, 2017.
  23. ↑ 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.
  24. ↑ Morrison, Bill (February 16, 1978). "Kinstonian honored for broadcasting excellence". The News & Observer. Raleigh, North Carolina. p. 31. Retrieved March 7, 2022.
  25. ↑ 25.0 25.1 "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 ...

Template:Seminole County, Georgia Template:Georgia county seats

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