Maxeys, Georgia, is a small town of about 200 people a few miles south of Lexington, which is itself about 20 miles east of Athens. It is not a place one would “go to” unless one lived there; it is a place one would come across only if traveling down the road on the way to somewhere else.
That’s how I found it, by accident, several years ago, coming back from visiting friends in Athens, and seeking a different way home from the roads I normally traveled, going instead down GA Highway 77 through Crawford to Union Point.
The town was founded in the 1830’s and incorporated in 1907, and eventually named for the Maxeys family who were early settlers of Oglethorpe County. (Our current editor, Andrea, came to Bryan County from a job with The Oglethorpe Echo, the county’s long-established newspaper. She will probably be the only person reading this column who will know where Maxeys is.)
It was at one time a booming community, based on cotton, and supported “two banks, many stores and shops, a department store boasting one of the first elevators in the area, a cotton gin, sawmills and a planing mill, a wagon and buggy manufacturing works, a fertilizer plant, a funeral directing concern having the first motor hearse in this area, a dentist, four doctors, a brick school house and all the other things that a thriving community needed.”
The boll weevil put an end to all that, and gradually the business district dried up, leaving only a couple of old storefronts and a magnificent house, which is now a bed-andbreakfast and residence.
In 1921, tragedy befell Maxeys, when a fire destroyed the century-old Maxeys Country Store, a two-story brick building that housed an antiques business, and was also home to the couple who owned it. It was in the process of being sold, and its loss, and the death of one of the owners, a former mayor, devastated folks in the area.
Still surviving is the nearby A.J. Gillen Department Store building. An article in the Athens Banner-Herald from 2020 noted the 1907 structure joined the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation’s list of “Places in Peril” in 2018 after being nominated by the city, and was for sale at $65,000.
That article also noted the surprising news that “In its heyday, the AJ Gillen Department Store was an upscale retail outlet that housed the only elevator in Oglethorpe County. The two-story brick building still features an elegant central stair made of cast iron, highlighted by a large overhead skylight. While in operation, the second floor featured the ladies’ and home goods departments while the downstairs had men’s clothing, shoes, furniture, and even groceries.
“A train that ran from Athens to Augusta went right through Maxeys, a prosperous cotton town at the time. Travelers would stop in and shop, or make trips specifically to what was then known as “The Macy’s of the South.”
The store closed in 1929, and the building was used for various purposes afterwards. It is currently unoccupied, and in need of major repairs. Pictures of the interior show what would have been a remarkable building for its time.
Maxeys has another distinguishing feature, the “A T Brightwell college scholarship,” which is unusual for several reasons.
Wikipedia notes that it is “available only to residents of Maxeys, but will pay college expenses through and including graduate school, to all unmarried or divorced proof of divorce necessary) students under 25 years of age who have lived within the strictly defined city limits of Maxeys for at least one year prior to the effective day of scholarship.
The parents of the student must live and remain in Maxeys for the duration of the scholarship. Because this scholarship is potentially so lucrative, many real estate companies in the area advertise homes as ‘AT Brightwell eligible.’ “ The scholarship was set up by the Brightwell family in honor of Augustine Thomas Brightwell, a wealthy area resident, who was a staunch supporter of education. It has benefited many area students over the years.
Small towns sometimes have very interesting histories, and many surprises.
I am glad I stumbled across this one. A happy accident!
Rafe Semmes is a proud graduate of (“the original”) Savannah High School and the University of Georgia. He and his wife live in eastern Liberty County, and are longtime Rotarians. He writes on a variety of topics, and may be reached at rafe_semmes@ yahoo.com.