Note: The following is part of a series of columns looking at the founding and general history of southeast Georgia and Bulloch County.

Somewhere to the northwest of Echo was located the town of Gnat, little of which is known. According to the book written by Small, local residents wanted the post office here to be named Hobson, but the postmaster general assigned it the name of Gnat instead.

Gooding was a station on what used to be known as the Central of Georgia Railroad's Dover to Dublin branch line. It was located to the southwest of Statesboro. All that is known about Gooding is that, according to the book written by Small, the postmasters were Sula and Seaborn Oglesby. The community eventually became part of Jenkins County.

Located 6 miles north of Claxton and 18 miles southwest of Statesboro was the little settlement of Green, once again recorded in the book written by Small. Small wrote that Mitchell J. Green opened a post office here in his store in the community that he had established. This community was lost to Evans County when it was created.

The town of Grimshaw, which was also referred to sometimes as Grimshaw Station, was located between Statesboro and Brooklet on what used to be known as the Savannah and Statesboro Railway.

Named after Harry B. Grimshaw, the general superintendent of the Savannah & Statesboro Railroad, the town’s postmasters were Ander J. Waters and Amy E. Kicklighter. Grimshaw was also the owner of the town's Nellwood Lumber Company.

The village of Groveland established a post office, which also served the residents of Fido, Euphaupee and Belknap, when theirs closed. Groveland's post office opened in 1897 and then closed very shortly thereafter.

The settlement of Haginsville was located north of Blackacre and southeast of Millray (or Mill Ray). All that is known about Haginsville is that the postmasters here were James I.M. Drew and George M. Drew.

The bustling city of Halcyondale, which was also known as Halcyon Dale, was first very simply called Station No. 5 on Central of Georgia's main railroad line, Halcyon Dale soon became a major depot.

It is written its name chosen by Halcyon Dale's famous poet-resident “Cuyler Young,” actually the well-known Screven County attorney W.A. Young. Halcyondale is Latin for “Idyllic Valley,” and Young is credited for naming the city of Sylvania, whose name translates from the Latin into English as “Forest Land.”

Roger Allen is a local lover of history. Allen provides a brief look each week at the area's past. E-mail Roger at rwasr1953@gmail.com.