Eatonton, Georgia

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Eatonton's most famous resident

Eatonton is a city in Putnam County, Georgia, United States. The population was 6,764 at the 2000 census. The city is the county seat of Putnam County^GR6.

Eatonton's claims to fame are its status as "Dairy Capital of Georgia" (in honor of its major industry, dairy farming), being the birthplace of Alice Walker (author of The Color Purple), Joel Chandler Harris (journalist and author of the Uncle Remus stories), Henry Grady Weaver (author of The Mainspring of Human Progress) and S. Truett Cathy (founder of Chick-Fil-A restauraunts) and, until recently, being home to the Egyptian-styled Nuwaubian compound known as Tama-Re.

Its name is partially redundant, as it uses the English suffix "ton", meaning "town", twice in a row. However, this is simply because the first half of the name consists of the name "Eaton".

[edit] Demographics

As of the census^GR2 of 2000, there were 6,764 people, 2,442 households, and 1,706 families residing in the city. The population density was 127.0/km² (329.1/mi²). There were 2,668 housing units at an average density of 50.1/km² (129.8/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 37.49% White, 59.33% African American, 0.10% Native American, 0.41% Asian, 1.35% from other races, and 1.32% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2.38% of the population.

There were 2,442 households out of which 34.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 40.4% were married couples living together, 24.0% had a female householder with no husband present, and 30.1% were non-families. 26.2% of all households were made up of individuals and 10.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.66 and the average family size was 3.20.

In the city the population was spread out with 28.5% under the age of 18, 9.8% from 18 to 24, 29.3% from 25 to 44, 20.3% from 45 to 64, and 12.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 34 years. For every 100 females there were 90.1 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 87.9 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $25,391, and the median income for a family was $31,571. Males had a median income of $26,703 versus $20,013 for females. The per capita income for the city was $12,993. About 20.4% of families and 25.1% of the population were below the poverty line, including 32.5% of those under age 18 and 16.4% of those age 65 or over.