For William Rawlings, a story into the past about his great uncle’s life spiraled into a historic novel about an era of events that led to the death of small southern towns.

Rawlings spoke to Rome Rotary Club on Thursday about his latest novel, "A Killing on Ring Jaw Bluff: The Great Recession and the Death of Small Town Georgia."

“It’s really two stories that parallel,” Rawlings said, “One is a fascinating murder case that took place in 1925 and the other is that of the economy of Georgia between 1910 and 1925. It should be a good book when it comes out.”

Rawlings said he has been researching what exactly caused the downfall of small towns in Georgia.

“The hay day of southern towns is gone, but the question is why,” Rawlings asked Rotary members.

According to Rawlings, contrary to popular belief, the Boll Weevil is not entirely responsible of the death of King Cotton.

“Really if you were alive in 1921, 22 or 23 and you saw the economy falling apart you’d say it must be the Boll Weevil, but the truth of the matter is that it was economics. It was as much the banking system in Washington and internationally with WWI, the post-war depression and inflation. What I hope to show when the book comes out is that while the Boll Weevil is still the popular myth, it was a relatively minor thing,” stated Rawlings.

After Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin in 1793, Georgians became wealthy farmers until late 1800.

“Suddenly the south could sell cotton for a price that was criminally profitable,” said Rawlings, “Cotton was responsible for the success of America.”

It was in January of 1920 when Georgia’s market fell completely apart. Hyperinflation averaged about 15 percent from 1916 to 1920.

When cotton was no longer profitable to grow, farmers became mill workers, leading to industrialized towns.

“This period of stagnation started and everyone said it was going to go away eventually, but it didn’t,” said Rawlings.

Rawlings said that he would like to see a revival of small towns in Georgia.

“City living is not all that it’s cracked up to be,” he chuckled, “I hope small towns make a comeback and I firmly believe the community values that people seek is embodied in small towns.”