Moreland is a town in

Coweta County Coweta County is a county in the West Central region of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is part of Metro Atlanta. As of the 2020 census, the population was 146,158. The county seat is Newnan. Coweta County is included in the Atlanta-Sandy S ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

, United States. As of the 2020 census, the town population was 382. The author

Erskine Caldwell Erskine Preston Caldwell (December 17, 1903 – April 11, 1987) was an American novelist and short story writer. His writings about poverty, racism and social problems in his native Southern United States, in novels such as '' Tobacco Road'' (19 ...

was born in Moreland in 1903. Newspaper columnist

Lewis Grizzard Lewis McDonald Grizzard Jr. (October 20, 1946 – March 20, 1994) was an American writer and humorist, known for his Southern demeanor and commentary on the American South. Although he spent his early career as a newspaper sports writer and edi ...

grew up in the town.

History

The town of Moreland traces back to the community of the Mt. Zion Methodist Church. This church was built in 1843 for the farmers who had mostly come to this area as part of the Georgia Land Lottery of 1827. Upon the arrival of the Atlanta and West Point Railroad in 1852, the center of this community shifted southward. It had a wood and water stop for trains and was called Puckett Station. The construction of a train station in 1888 was the event that led to the formation of the present town. The community was renamed Moreland on September 1, 1888, and incorporated on December 28, 1888. The town was laid out with the train station at its center and the boundaries extending one half mile in every direction to form a circular shape. In the early days of Moreland, cotton was the most important contributor to the local economy. Fruit crops were also a factor including peaches, plums, pears, and grapes. An economic shift occurred during the 1920s after the devastation of the cotton crop by the boll weevil. Diseases and bad weather eventually wiped out the commercial peach orchards. W.A. Brannon opened a store in 1894 and later other business ventures. Hard economic times forced him out of business and his buildings were sold in 1920. The Moreland Hosiery Mill was located in these buildings for several years. In 1926, new investors bought this property and opened Moreland Knitting Mills. This was the town's major industrial employer until the business closed in 1968. Eventually these buildings were donated to the town of Moreland and are now used to house town offices, public meeting spaces, and the Hometown Heritage Museum. Memorabilia that was once displayed in the Lewis Grizzard Museum in an old service station was moved to the historic Moreland Mill on Main St. in 2011. Erskine Caldwell museum

Geography

Moreland is located in southern Coweta County at .

U.S. Route 29 U.S. Route 29 or U.S. Highway 29 (US 29) is a north–south United States Numbered Highway that runs for from Pensacola, Florida, to Ellicott City, Maryland, just west of Baltimore, Baltimore, Maryland, in the Eastern United Stat ...

passes through the town, leading north to Newnan, the county seat, and southwest to Grantville. U.S. Route 27A leads north with US-29 to Newnan and south to Luthersville. According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...

, Moreland has a total area of , all land.

Demographics

As of the

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

of 2000, there were 393 people, 150 households, and 109 families residing in the town. By the 2020 census, its population was 382. In 2000, the median income for a household in the town was $45,375, and the median income for a family was $58,000. Males had a median income of $32,500 versus $31,042 for females. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...

for the town was $17,846. About 8.2% of families and 9.4% of the population were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...

, including 14.0% of those under age 18 and 7.8% of those age 65 or over.

Notable people

Mattiline Render Mattiline Render (born February 17, 1947) is an American sprinter. In 1971 she won a gold medal in the 4 × 100 m relay at the Pan American Games and set a world record in the 4×110 yard relay. The year after, she competed in the 100 m and 4 � ...

References

{{authority control Towns in Coweta County, Georgia Towns in Georgia (U.S. state)