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Other Information: Baker
County was created on Dec. 12, 1825. Twelve days later, the legislature
passed an act organizing the county and providing that the house
of William Howards serve as the site for holding court and handling
other county business until a courthouse could be built. On Dec.
16, 1828, the legislature designated the town of Byron as county
seat. Shortly afterwards, a courthouse was built in Byron, though
details about the structure are missing. In 1831, the legislature
moved the county seat to a land lot more centrally located and
named commissioners with responsibility for having a courthouse
and jail built. Apparently, nothing was done for the following
six years, as the legislature in 1837 appointed a new group of
commissioners to oversee building of a county courthouse. At
some point, a courthouse was built in the new town of Newton.
In 1874, the legislature authorized Baker County to borrow up
to $5,000 to build a new courthouse. At some point thereafter,
county officials built a courthouse -- but it exceeded the $5,000
authorized by the legislature. In 1881, the legislature passed
an act allowing Baker County to levy a special tax for 1881 and
1882 to pay off the debt for building the court house and repairing
public bridges. This building was replaced with a new courthouse in
1900 (see
photo). Renovations to the 1900 courthouse were required
because of major flooding of the Flint River in 1925, 1929, and
1994. The devastating flood of 1994 brought waters from the Flint
River almost to the second floor of the courthouse (see
photo). As a result, Baker County officials moved to a vacant
school building several blocks away (see
photo). This building served as temporary courthouse for
six years. In 2000, the county remodeled a vacant school building
adjacent to the temporary courthouse and made it new courthouse.
County Courthouse Historical
Marker: Click
here
County History: Baker County was created on Dec. 12, 1825
by an act of the General Assembly (Ga. Laws 1825, p. 65). Georgia's
66th county was formed entirely from the eastern portion of Early
County. According to the legislation:
That from and immediately after the passage of this act, the
county of Early shall be divided as hereafter pointed out, to-wit,
beginning at the corners of the twelfth and thirteenth districts
of said county, on the Decatur line, thence north on the district
line between said districts and districts six and seven until
said district line shall strike the Pechitler creek, thence up
the main prong of said creek to the county line between the county
of Early and the territory lately acquired of the Creek nation
of Indians.
However, early maps of Georgia do not show a Pechitler Creek,
and the boundary between Early and Baker counties is shown as
a straight line falling between land lots 3 and 4, 6 and 7, and
12 and 13 (see
1839 map).
Two counties were created entirely from Baker County: Dougherty
(1853) and Mitchell (1857). Additionally, portions of Baker County
were used to help create two other counties: Calhoun (1854) and
Miller (1856).
Baker County was named for Col. John Baker, who was a member
of Georgia's 1775 Provincial Congress and later served in the
American Revolution.
County Seat: The Dec. 12, 1825 act creating Baker County
made no provision for location of a county seat. However, an
act of Dec. 24, 1825 named five commissioners with responsibility
for selecting a county seat and building a courthouse and jail.
Until this was done, the legislation directed that court sessions
and county business be conducted at the house of William Howards.
It is believed that the commissioners selected the settlement
of Byron near the northern border of Baker County as the county
seat. First settled in the mid-1820s, Byron was a stage coach
stop on one of the major roads crossing southwest Georgia. The
origin of the name is uncertain, but it may have been named for
English author Lord Bryon (who died in 1824). On Dec. 16, 1828,
the Georgia legislature passed an act designating Byron as county
seat of Baker County. However, county residents soon began to
complain because of Byron's location only one mile south of the
Lee County border (see map). Consequently, on Dec. 26, 1831,
the legislature directed that Baker's county seat be moved to
lot 172 in the 8th District. The act also named commissioners
with authority to select a site in lot 172 for the courthouse,
to lay out town lots, and to have a courthouse built. For whatever
reason, the commissioners failed to carry out their responsibility,
for the legislature enacted legislation on Dec. 25, 1837 naming
eight new commissioners and entrusting them with the same responsibilities
as the previous commission. Subsequently, a town was laid out
in land lot 172 on the west bank of the Flint River. The new
town was named Newton in honor of Sgt. John Newton, a South Carolina
hero who was imprisoned and died after the British captured Charleston
in 1780.
Perhaps because of the frequent flooding of the Flint River,
some Baker County residents were unhappy with Newton as county
seat. In Dec. 1858, the General Assembly authorized a referendum
the next month on moving the county seat. That referendum failed,
as did another on removal held in July 1877.
Maps
Size of County (Total
Area): 349.2 square miles
County Rank in Total
Area: 79th out of 159
Population:
Baker County
City of Newton
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