Quitman County GaArchives History .....Organization of Quitman County from "The Quitman Echo" 
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Donna Eldridge DonnaEldrid@aol.com July 15, 2004, 7:46 pm

                     THE ORGANIZATION OF QUITMAN COUNTY


     Quitman County had its beginning in a bill introduced at the 1858 session 
of the General Assembly of Georgia which was held at Milledgeville, then the 
capital of the state.  On Saturday, November 6, 1858, Senator Theodore LeGrand 
Guerry of Randolph County introduced a bill providing for the laying out of a 
new county from territory then included in the counties of Randolph and Stewart.

     Senator Guerry in 1858 was serving his fourth term in the Legislature of 
Georgia and was no new hand in legislative procedure.  His skill as a 
parliamentarian was attested by the fact that he was elected President of the 
Georgia Senate during the 1858 session.  Senator Guerry had a very special 
interest in the bill which he introduced, for he resided in that part of 
Randolph County which was to be included in the proposed county.  According to 
tradition, Senator Guerry felt that his political interest could be best served 
by standing for election in a county smaller than Randolph.  Moreover, Senator 
Guerry's father-in-law and brother-in-law, Captain James Harrison and Samuel 
Harrison, had recently been disappointed in the outcome of a law suit in the 
Randolph Superior Court concerning their interest in a ferry which they 
operated on the Chattahoochee River.  Their disappointment led the family to 
lead a movement for the organization of a new county.  

     In addition to these reasons for organizing a new county, there was the 
inconvenience of the long trip to Cuthbert which had to be undertaken whenever 
the citizens of Western Randolph had legal business to transact.  The Central 
of Georgia Railroad had not been built from Cuthbert to Georgetown and the trip 
to the county seat had to be made over bad roads by horseback or buggy.  
Because of this transportation difficulty, Eufaula and not Cuthbert was the 
main market town for Western Randolph, and the Chattahoochee River was the 
principal artery for receiving freight and shipping agricultural produce.  The 
citizens who lived in the western portion of Randolph not only thought of 
Georgetown as a trading center but also as a political center, for here was the 
polling place and the location for the eight districts of Randolph County as 
well as the home of Senator Guerry.

     Undoubtedly, Senator Guerry and the other legislators who favored the new 
county used all of these reasons to good advantage.  For the bill to organize 
the new county passed both houses of the legislature and was approved by 
Governor Joseph E. Brown on December 10, 1858, which is the county's official 
birthday.  The legislature named the new county Quitman in honor of General 
John Anthony Quitman of who had recently died in July of 1858.

     General Quitman was held in high regard by southerners of his day.  He was 
an ardent champion of states rights against the encroachments of the Federal 
Government.  Quitman was born in New York State September 1, 1798 and died July 
17, 1858 in Natchez, Miss. where he is buried in the City Cemetery.  Coming 
south as a young man, Quitman settled in Mississippi and became a leading 
lawyer, jurist, and politician of that state.  After serving as a major general 
in the Mexican War, he was elected governor of Mississippi and finally to the 
House of Representatives where he was serving at the time of his death.

     With the illustrious name of Quitman, the new county was authorized to 
begin official operations in 1859.  The county as laid out by the legislature 
consisted of the entire eight district of Randolph and part of the twenty-first 
district of Stewart.  It was attached to the Pataula Judicial Circuit and to 
the second brigade of the thirteenth division of the Georgia militia.  The 
voters of the new county were empowered to elect county officers on the first 
Monday in February, 1859.

     These county officers were commissioned by Governor Joseph E. Brown on 
February 10, 1859.  The first sheriff was James M. Cooper and the first clerk 
of the Superior Court was John R. M. Neel.  Joel A. Crawford was elected first 
clerk of the Inferior Court and Joel E. Smith was the first ordinary.   William 
J. Brown served as the first surveyor and Alden Hall was named coroner.  The 
first tax collector was Owen G. Thomas and the first tax receiver was James M. 
Granberry.  Dr. Nicholas T. Christian served as the first county treasurer.  
The first justices of the Inferior Court, which was the equivalent of the 
present day County Court and board of Commissioners were Dr. L. P. Dozier, 
Samuel Hillman, Christopher C. Willis, Benjamin H. Rice, and Edgar C. Ellington.

     The justices of the Inferior Court were authorized by the act of 1858 to 
lay out militia districts and to provide for the election therein of justices 
of the peace.  Four districts were laid out by the court:  Georgetown, Number 
811; North Carolina, Number 1195; Florida, Number 1196; and Bumbleton, Number 
1197.  For the Georgetown District Caleb McGinney and Stephen Russell were 
elected the first J.P.'s.  In the North Carolina District Abraham Shields and 
James M. Granberry served as the first justices.  Jesse D. Brown and John H. 
Gilbert were named justices in the Florida District while William Graddy and 
Eden Jackson were named in the Bumbleton District.

     The election of members to the legislature completed the roster of the 
first Quitman County officials.  At that time each county elected a senator as 
well as a representative to each session of the legislature.  To the senatorial 
post it was not surprising that Colonel Theodore LeGrand Guerry, who might well 
be called the father of the new county, was elected.  Robert G. Morris was 
named the first representative from Quitman County to the Legislature.  

     After the election for county officials, the Inferior Court proceeded by 
authority of the 1858 act to establish a county seat and to provide for the 
erection of the necessary public buildings.  The village of Georgetown, which 
had long been a polling place and a court ground in Randolph County, was named 
the county seat and incorporated by the legislature December, 1859.

     Under the direction of the Inferior Court, the first county courthouse was 
built in 1859.  That courthouse, which stood on the site of the present 
courthouse, was a two-story frame building with the court room on the first 
floor and the county offices on the second floor.  This building was used by 
the county until it was destroyed by fire in February, 1921.  A wooden 
structure was built on the courthouse square for a county jail and served this 
purpose until the present jail was built in 1891.  The Quitman County jail was 
designed by the commissioners in 1890-1891.  The committee included J. E. 
Harris, Dr. F. M. Bledsoe, J. P. Kimble, and W. A. Cumbie.  J. E. Harris was 
the representative to the legislature.

     The structure was originally surrounded by tall wooden walls.  There was a 
windmill to provide water.  The walls to the jail are twelve inches thick and 
it is a two-story building.

     With the construction of public buildings and the election of county 
officials in 1859, Quitman County began its first century as a civil division 
of the State of Georgia.  The county boundaries have remained essentially the 
same, though the legislature has made minor adjustments from time to time.  At 
the present time the area of the county is officially listed by the Bureau of 
the Census as consisting of 170 square miles or 108,800 acres.  The 1860 
census, the first since the county's organization, credited the county with a 
population of 3,499.  The largest population ever recorded in a census year was 
that of 1900, when the county had 4,701 inhabitants.  In 1950 the population 
was 3,015, the lowest figure recorded in the history of the county.

     Today Quitman County is one of the smallest counties in Georgia, both in 
area and population, but it begins its second century with  pride in its past, 
confidence in its present, and hope in its future.

By Mrs. Emmie Bledsoe Lester for the Quitman County Centennial Edition of the 
Cuthbert Times in 1958.

"The Quitman Echo - Quitman County, Georgia" - Jacquelyn Shepard
(pages 9-11) 

Additional Comments:
Transcribed and submitted by Donna Eldridge with permission from Jacquelyn 
Shepard

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ga/quitman/history/other/gms59organiza.txt

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