In 1808, widow Mary Green Dame and her six children settled in Jones County. Two sons, George and John, builders by trade, built a house on the east side of the Ocmulgee River. Zachariah Booth owned and operated the first ferry here, which was probably built by George and John Dame. John Brooking Dame married two of Booth's daughters, first Polly in 1811 and then Mildred in 1815, and he bought Booth's Ferry in 1838. A community called Dames Ferry grew up around the crossing, with several stores, a church, homes, a school, a bank, a grist and planer mill, a U.S. Post Office from 1884 to 1958, and a Central of Georgia Railroad depot. The Dames operated the ferry and a fishery until selling it to S.M. Hodge in 1872. The ferry was replaced by the Sam A. Hodge bridge in 1962, and in 1964 it was moved to Macon County to become Georgia's last operating public ferry.