Pioneers of the Wiregrass is a series of books on what is known as the Wiregrass area of Georgia. The first 7 volumes were written by Judge Folks Huxford. The second 5 volumes of the first series, and final 2 volumes of the second series, were published after the death of Huxford, and written by volunteers of the Huxford Genealogical Society. The original twelve volumes cover the wiregrass area of Georgia and the adjacent counties in Florida. They also include the ancestors of pioneer settlers of the coverage area who lived in other regions of the country. The final 2 volumes include the Wiregrass counties of South Alabama and Northwest Florida. This is an expensive set of genealogy material available at the Amelia Island Genealogical Society collection, located at the Fernandina Beach Library. It is not available online in any form except for lists of names of those who have had family information published within it. Due to the expense and rarity of the books, they must be viewed within the Fernandina Beach Library and may not be checked out.
The wiregrass region is named for a native bunch grass once plentiful in the area. The region stretches approximately from just below Macon, Georgia and follows the Fall Line west to Montgomery, Alabama. From there it turns south and runs to approximately Washington County, Florida in the northern panhandle. From there it runs east, roughly making its southern boundary along Interstate 10 to Lake City, Florida. From there it turns north, roughly following the Suwannee River back into Georgia and along the western fringes of the Okefenokee Swamp. From here it runs due north back to Macon.
Wiregrass Georgia is the region in southeast Georgia that includes the current counties of Appling, Atkinson, Bacon, Ben Hill, Berrien, Brantley, Brooks, Camden, Charlton, Clinch, Coffee, Colquitt, Cook, Echols, Glynn, Irwin, Jeff Davis, Lanier, Lowndes, Pierce, Thomas, Tift, Turner, Ware, Wayne, Wilcox and Worth.
The northern Florida counties in close proximity to the Wiregrass Georgia region (commonly referred to as the Suwannee Land) are where many of the descendants of the early Wiregrass pioneers migrated. The Florida Suwannee Land counties are: Alachua, Baker, Bradford, Clay, Columbia, Duval, Gadsden, Hamilton, Jefferson, Lafayette, Leon, Madison, St. Johns, Putnam, Suwannee, Taylor, and Union.
Sketch Lists
The following links will take you to pages at the Huxford Genealogical Society for each series of books. In the left hand column you will find links to alphabetical lists for each series. These will contain the names of those included in the sketches. Come to the Fernandina Library to research the manuscripts!