Warsaw
The oldest community in Milton County was Warsaw. Located at the river along Medlock Bridge Road. Warsaw is listed on many maps years prior to the removal of the Cherokee Indians. Therefore, why the name of Warsaw was chosen is lost to the ages. The former Warsaw Methodist Church would be the oldest church in the county. As with all the other communities, the roads in this community reflect the important families that settled there. The Medlock family controlled the ferry over the Chattahoochee River and subsequently built the bridge. The Parsons family owned most of the property surrounding Ocee, and Mr. C.W. Parsons' house was the large Queen Anne style house that was recently moved from the corner of Parsons Road and Medlock Bridge Road.
Local legend says that Warsaw was named by the Moravian missionaries to the Cherokee in memory of their "homeland." The problem was that Moravia is in southern Germany, not in Poland. A more likely explanation is the common misunderstanding of Indian village names. There was a community of Creek Indians called "Wassaws" or "Waxaws" or other spellings. After leaving the coast, most of the Creeks established villages on the Chattahoochee before moving on to Alabama and ultimately removed to Oklahoma. This could be the final immigration spot for the "Waxaw" Indians, which the local whites misunderstood as "Warsaw."
The Waxaw belong to the Cusabo, a tribe located on the coast that spoke a similar language to the Muskogee/Creek Indians. The first name of Hilton Head Island was Waxaw Island. According to foundation myths of the Muskogee peoples, they came from the west, probably the southwest, and stopped when they got to the ocean. The Waxaw were located near one of the great cities of the Creek Indians that was mentioned by de Soto: Cofitasqui. This city was known later as Koashita.
Because of the pressures from the Spanish and later English settlers, most of the Cusabo were killed or merged into the neighboring tribes. Because of the proximity to the Koashita, the great peace town of the Creek, the Waxaw may have merged with this tribe. The Koashita are known to have traveled first up the Savannah River, then to the head waters of the Ocmulgee River and subsequently to the upper Chattahoochee River. The Koashita then migrated down the Chattahoochee to finally reside at the Falls, or near Columbus, Georgia. If the Waxaw had been with the Koashita during this immigration, they could have simply stopped at what is now called Warsaw.
Likewise, there is a Siouan language people in the southeast that lived during historic times in upper South Carolina. The tribal names remain largely in place names in the South Carolina piedmont: Cheraw, Catawba, etc. One of these peoples were called the "Waxaw." These may have also been the descendants of the Waxaw tribe on the coast of South Carolina that migrated north. These tribes were usually at war with the Cherokee, and the Cherokee aided the whites in attacking the Waxaw. Because of both of the tribes fought the Cherokee, the Waxaw may have joined the Muscogee/Creek nation as they immigrated west and ultimately south along the Chattahoochee. More information is still needed to link these names.