The Rountree Family roots run deep in South Georgia. James Rountree settled in the area where Cecil Georgia is today in 1821. The route he took became known as Rountree Trail and is where a major highway is today. James and his son, Junior cleared land and began farming.
John Albert Rountree started young, in his teens, bringing teams of horses up from Florida into Southwest Georgia.
In 1869 John Albert acquired some land on what is now the Colquitt County, Cook County line. He raised his family and founded his legacy as a hardworking, humble man. The land was filled with timber and fertile for cotton. He started a cotton gin and a saw mill in the area.
John Albert split out land to his children as they came of age. Thomas Franklin, T.F., built a house in 1906 that still stands today on his portion. His son, John Edsel, stayed on the farm and built a house across the road. He had a stroke while working on a watermelon plow and his son, John Edsel, Jr. (Chip), took on the farming operation.
Chip had learned from his forefathers to be conservative with time and money. He has carried on a successful farming operation, which he now shares with his two sons.
Chip and his wife, Carol, had two sons, Clint and Luke, and a daughter, Laura Griffin.
Clint and Luke grew up working for daddy and spent long hours on tractors and other farm equipment. The cotton picker was their house during the fall.
Clint, the oldest, started farming on his own in 1995. He had 150 acres with 100 of that in cotton. In 2008 Luke joined the farming operation after college and working for a while at an off farm job. Today they have approximately 2600 acres in cotton.
Off season these two were not content to sit around and do nothing so they created and work Rountree Tile Service, a company that installs drain tile.
Clint married Heidi in 2006. They have two boys, Jed and Levi and a daughter, Molly.
Luke married Brooke in 2007. They have two boys, Winston and Tripp and a daughter, Andi.