In the 1820’s, on the Indian Path that connected the trail from Hartford to Fort Hawkins with the trail from Barnard’s Crossing to the Old Creek Agency, James Abbington Everett established the Indian Trading Post around which Fort Valley arose. He married Mary Beaufort Greene in 1835. At his death in 1848, he owned 242 slaves and more than 12,000 acres of land. A public benefactor, he gave land here for church and school use, secured the Southwestern R.R. for Fort Valley, and devoted his wealth to Christian education in Georgia.