| Official Name: | Donalsonville, Georgia |
| Settlement Type: | City |
| Seal Size: | 90px |
| Motto: | The Gateway to Lake Seminole[1] |
| Mapsize: | 250px |
| Coordinates: | 31.0408°N -84.8783°W |
| Subdivision Type: | Country |
| Subdivision Name: | United States |
| Subdivision Type1: | State |
| Subdivision Type2: | County |
| Subdivision Name1: | Georgia |
| Subdivision Name2: | Seminole |
| Government Type: | Council-Manager |
| Leader Title: | Mayor |
| Leader Name: | Ronald Johnson |
| Unit Pref: | Imperial |
| Area Footnotes: | [2] |
| Area Total Km2: | 10.34 |
| Area Total Sq Mi: | 3.99 |
| Area Land Km2: | 10.29 |
| Area Land Sq Mi: | 3.97 |
| Area Water Km2: | 0.05 |
| Area Water Sq Mi: | 0.02 |
| Elevation M: | 45 |
| Elevation Ft: | 148 |
| Population Total: | 2833 |
| Population As Of: | 2020 |
| Population Density Km2: | 275.43 |
| Population Density Sq Mi: | 713.42 |
| Postal Code Type: | ZIP codes |
| Postal Code: | 39845 |
| Area Code: | 229 |
| Timezone: | Eastern (EST) |
| Utc Offset: | -5 |
| Timezone Dst: | EDT |
| Utc Offset Dst: | -4 |
| Blank Name: | FIPS code |
| Blank Info: | 13-23368[3] |
| Blank1 Name: | GNIS feature ID |
| Blank1 Info: | 0331568[4] |
Donalsonville is a city in and the county seat of Seminole County, Georgia, United States.[5] The population was 2,833 in 2020.
Donalsonville was originally part of Decatur County. It is named after John Ernest Donalson (1846–1920), also known as Jonathan or John E. Donalson, a prominent businessman of the area. Donalson built the first lumber mill in Donalsonville, Donalson Lumber Company. He also built homes and a commissary for the workers of the mill. The lumber company paved the way for the town's growth.
Donalsonville was first chartered as a town in Georgia on December 8, 1897.[6] When Seminole County was formed in January 1920, Donalsonville was named as its county seat. By August 1922, the Town of Donalsonville became known as the City of Donalsonville, with the charter passing on August 19, 1922.
The Seminole County Courthouse was erected in 1922 and is still standing today. The Courthouse is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. (Wolfe)
Donalsonville is located at 31.0408°N -84.8783°W.[7]
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 4sqmi, of which 4sqmi is land and 0.25% is water. The city is located 20 minutes north of Lake Seminole, 62miles south of Albany, 36miles east of Dothan, Alabama and 107miles west of Valdosta.
| White | 904 | 31.91% | |
| Black or African American | 1,734 | 61.21% | |
| Native American | 1 | 0.04% | |
| Asian | 59 | 2.08% | |
| Other/Mixed | 53 | 1.87% | |
| Hispanic or Latino | 82 | 2.89% |
Donalsonville has about a 63% high school graduate rate with about 52% in the work force. The biggest industries are education, health, and social services. (Georgia.gov) The average median income for households according to the U.S. Census report in 2000 was $20,687 and median family income was $25,679, with the average household size around 2 and family size around 3 people.
According to 2012 data from the Donalsonville Chamber of Commerce,[9] the top five employers in the city are as follows:
| Employer | Employees | |
|---|---|---|
| Donalsonville Hospital, Inc. | 350 | |
| Ponder Enterprises Inc. | 250 | |
| Lewis M. Carter, Inc. | 150 | |
| American Peanut Growers Group, LLC | 80 | |
| JH Harvey Company | 30 |
The Seminole County School District holds pre-school to grade twelve, and consists of one elementary school and one middle-high school.[10] The district has 120 full-time teachers and over 1,754 students.[11]
Donalsonville is home to the Seminole County Public Library.[12] The library serves the citizens of Donalsonville and Seminole County with a collection of print and audiovisual materials. The library is located at 103 W. 4th Street in Donalsonville.
Donalsonville was the site of the second largest mass murder in Georgia history (the largest being the Woolfolk murders in 1887). On May 14, 1973, Carl Isaacs, his half brother Wayne Coleman, and fellow prisoner George Dungee escaped from the Maryland State Prison. They were later joined by Carl's younger brother, 15-year-old Billy Isaacs.[13] While en route to Florida the men came upon the Alday farm in Donalsonville. They stopped at a mobile home owned by Jerry Alday and his wife Mary, to look for gas as there was a gas pump on the property.[14]
Alday and his father Ned Alday arrived as the trailer was being ransacked and were ordered inside, then shot to death in separate bedrooms. Jerry's brother Jimmy arrived at the trailer on a tractor and he too was led inside and forced to lay on a couch, then shot. Later, Jerry's 25-year-old wife Mary arrived at the trailer as the men attempted to hide the tractor. She was restrained, while Jerry's brother Chester and uncle Aubrey arrived in a pickup truck. The criminals accosted the pair still in their truck and forced them inside the trailer where they were also shot to death. Mary Alday was raped on her kitchen table before being taken out to a wooded area miles away where she was raped again and then finally murdered.[15]
Billy Isaacs cooperated with prosecutors and received a twenty-year sentence for armed robbery.[16] Carl Isaacs, Coleman, and Dungee were tried by jury in Seminole County in 1973, convicted, and sentenced to death. All three convictions and sentences were overturned by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in 1985, on the grounds that the pool of local jurors had been tainted by excess pretrial publicity.[17] All three defendants were re-tried in 1988 and were again convicted; however, only Carl Isaacs was sentenced to death, Coleman and Dungee receiving life sentences.
Carl Isaacs was executed on May 6, 2003, at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison in Jackson, by lethal injection.[18] At the time of his execution, aged 49, he was the longest-serving death row inmate anywhere in the US, having spent 30 years on death row prior to execution.[19] [20]
Billy Isaacs was released from prison in 1993,[21] and died in Florida on May 4, 2009. George Dungee died in prison on April 4, 2006. Only Wayne Coleman remains incarcerated (as of 2023).
The murders were the subject on an award-winning 1977 documentary called Murder One directed by Fleming 'Tex' Fuller.[22] Fuller then wrote a screenplay, which was filmed as the 1988 film, Murder One, starring Henry Thomas.[23] The 1988 film was widely released in North America, but it wasn't released in southwest Georgia near where the killings took place, so as not to offend people.[23]
Janice Daugharty published a fictionalized account of the murders, Going to Jackson (2010, http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11744169-going-to-jackson).
By the 1900s, the need for churches arose. The first church was erected in Donalsonville in 1850, the Friendship United Methodist Church. In the beginning the Methodist Church served as a meeting place for all Protestant denominations. Later, the First Presbyterian Church of Donalsonville was established in January 1898 with 25 members. On August 4, 1902, 18 people helped to create the First Baptist Church of Donalsonville. The Church of The Nazarene, originally called “The Holiness Church,” was established in October 1902. The meetings of the Church of the Nazarene were actually held in a member's house until 1903, when a building was erected. The first black church in Donalsonville was created in 1895, the Live Oak African Methodist Episcopal Church. Eventually, the number totalled thirteen.