Screven County Community Network - A Project of the Screven-Jenkins Regional Library




		By James W. Hankinson, III
	Screven County's official life began at a place with no official name that later became Rocky Ford. Sometimes called The Rock, other times called
The Ford, it was the area's first county seat more than a century before the official town was created.
An important farming community from the mid-1700s, Rocky Ford was the site of Benjamin Lanier's home, designated in 1793 as the central point of operations, the official seat of government, for the new county called Screven. The area drew its name from the natural ford that settlers used regularly as a bridge across the Ogeechee River. But that didn't happen until 1886, long after the county seat was established in Jacksonborough, then Sylvania. It probably only happened then because the U.S. Post Office said any town that received its mail had to have a name. The village grew rapidly and by 1840, the Central of Georgia Railroad that usually called it No. 7, the town lay 65 miles from Savannah, recognized this little settlement was destined to become an important business center. So the railroad built a depot and Rocky Ford became a railway junction, a shipping point that also offered passenger service was available. Rocky Ford products, like its well-known brick, were shipped throughout the U.S. and overseas. Today's Rocky Ford lifestyle is considerably quieter, but no less rich. The Ogeechee still flows over The Ford. The train still whistles in the night. And life tumbles along at The Rock.