2006 City of Cordele, "Cordelia Hawkins"

Cordelia Hawkins

Cordele, "The Magic City of the Pines" was named for Miss Cordelia Hawkins (1843-1919). She was the eldest daughter of Col. Samuel H.Hawkins, president of the Savannah, Americus, and Montgomery railroad.

The only railroad serving Sumter and surrounding counties was the South Western Railroad, which was organized in Macon in the late 1840s, and reached Americus by October 1854. The coming of the railroad in the early 1850s caused Americus to boom. Facing no competition in Southwest Georgia and virtually no government regulation, the South Western and its lessee, the Central Railroad, were able to charge what Sumter County residents believed to be "unjust tariffs, thus causing a decline in business. Chief among the group of Americus men protesting the Central's unfair rates in the 1870s was Samuel H. Hawkins, successful lawyer, banker and civic leader. The Central retaliated by removing the name Americus from its system map.

Hawkins, along with other wealthy Americus investors, organized the Americus Preston and Lumpkin Railroad in 1884. Their dream expanded in 1888 when they extended it both east and west to create a direct route between Montgomery, Alabama and Savannah, Georgia, in the same year the railroad was renamed the Savannah, Americus & Montgomery Railway, or S.A.M.

The effect of the new railroad's arrival areas was immediate. The Americus Investment Company established Cordele in 1888. The new town of Cordele was named in honor of Sam Hawkins eldest daughter whose name was "Cordelia."