Dine Downtown Valdosta

How Valdosta got its name:
Lowndes county was named after William Jones Lowndes, a distinguished lawyer, statesman, and soldier from South Carolina, who was nominated for the presidency but declined due to ill health. Franklinville became the first county seat (in 1828) and was moved to Lowndesville (the name of the town was later changed to Troupville).

In 1860, a railroad route from Savannah, GA to Mobile, AL forced the town to relocate. Troupville citizens named the new settlement "Valdosta" in honor of former Georgia Governor George Troup, who owned an estate he named Val d' Aosta after a district in the mountains of northwest Italy.

Valdosta was incorporated on December 7, 1860. Later that year, when Georgia seceded and became part of the Confederacy, Lowndes County was not slow to do its part, as shown by military records. The Militia fought bravely at Fredericksburg, Sharpsburg, and Harper's Ferry. When the era of Reconstruction began, Valdosta grew steadily thanks in large part to fertile farming land and a number of railroad lines connecting Valdosta to cities such as Macon, GA and Jacksonville, FL.

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