Georgiana, AL

Georgiana is a Butler County town in southern Alabama, with 1,324 residents in the 2020 census. U.S. 31 and Alabama 106 cross the town, while Interstate 65 passes northwest at Exit 114. Butler County Public Schools operates the local K–12 public school, and the town’s streets still reflect the railroad, highway, and farm-country routes that shaped its growth. Georgiana’s better-known claim comes from country music: Hank Williams spent his boyhood here, and his childhood home now operates as a museum.

ATTRCarol M. Highsmith / Public domain

Minister Pitt S. Milner founded Georgiana after the Louisville & Nashville Railroad built through the area in the 1850s. He opened a post office in 1855, named the town for his daughter and home state of Georgia, then added a general store in 1858. The railroad depot, sawmill, grist mill, roads, and stores made Georgiana a southern Butler County trading point. The Hank Williams Festival each spring keeps the singer’s connection in view, while the Milner-Boone House, J.C. Watson House, and Williams Home remain on the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage. Georgiana is an Alabama railroad town with a music history known far beyond Butler County.