Petersburg, Georgia

Now defunct, it was named after Petersburg, Virginia, and founded by Dionysius Oliver in 1786 to serve the rapidly growing Broad River Valley region of Georgia.

[2] Petersburg gained importance as a tobacco inspection station, vital to local planters in obtaining good prices for their casked produce.

It is situated on a point of Land, formed by Broad river, where it empties into Savannah river; is a handsome well built Town and presents to the view of the astonished traveller, a Town which has risen out of the Woods in a few years, as if by enchantment: It has two Warehouses for the Inspection of Tobacco: Is fifty miles North west from Augusta.

[5]Notable persons from the Broad River Valley area included William Wyatt Bibb, who practiced medicine in Petersburg, and was elected as a U. S. Representative from Georgia.

[7] George Rockingham Gilmer, born in Wilkes County and a pupil of Waddel's Academy, was elected U. S. Representative in the 1820s and Governor of Georgia 1829-1831 and 1837-1839.

Later, the rivers proved to be obstacles to construction of railroads through the area, considered essential for the economic life of towns after 1850.

[15] The site is now mostly submerged by Clarks Hill Lake, but visitors to Bobby Brown State Park can see foundations during low water (Augusta Chronicle, February 3, 2013).