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Other Information:
The act creating Fannin County authorized the justices of the
county's inferior court to select a county seat and provide for
construction of a courthouse and other public buildings. Until
such action was taken, the act directed that county business
and elections take place at Joab Addington's Store. Fannin County's
first courthouse, a small wooden structure, was built in Morgantown.
Little is known about when, except that it reportedly burned
down. In 1895, the county seat was moved to the town of Blue
Ridge, where a two-story brick courthouse was built in 1895-96
(see photo
1 and photo
2). The courthouse burned in 1936, and a new courthouse was
completed the following year funded by the Federal Emergency
Administration of Public Works (see photo).
In 2000, Fannin County voters approved a special-purpose
local option sales tax to finance construction of a new courthouse
and jail complex next door to the 1937 courthouse. An architect
was selected in November 2000, with construction beginning the
following year. Construction of the new courthouse was completed
and the new building occupired in the spring of 2004. In July
2004, theBlue Ridge Mountain Arts Association began leasing the old courthouse,
which was renamed The Georgia Mountain Center for the Arts.
County Courthouse
Historical Marker: Click
here
County History:
Fannin County was created from Gilmer and Union counties on Jan.
21, 1854 by an act of the General Assembly (Ga. Laws 1853-54,
p. 298). That legislation specified Fannin County's boundaries
as:
Beginning at the North-west corner of Lot No. 163, 27th
District, 2d Section, thence South to the South-west corner
of Lot No. 180, 27th District, 2d Section, thence East to Lot
No. 9 in the 7th District and 2d Section, thence on a straight
line to the South-east corner of the 7th District and 2d Section,
thence South with the district line to Lot No. 9 in the 6th
District and 1st Section, thence North-east with the Blue Ridge
to Lot No. 228, thence in a straight line to William Cavender's
in the county of Union, thence due North to the top of the
Ridge dividing the waters of Tacoah and Notley rivers, thence
along the top of the said dividing Ridge North west to the
head of Dooly Creek, thence in a North direction along the
top of the main ridge to the North Carolina line at or near
Jesse Raper's, thence along the North Carolina line to the
line dividing Tennessee and Georgia, thence along said line
to the starting point. [Note: Instead of lot 228, as noted
above, the 1854 act specified lot "162 on the district line
between 5th and 6th of the 1st Section at the Lumpkin line."
However, in 1891, the legislature replaced this quoted language
with "228" stating that reference to lot 162 in the 1854 act
had been a "clerical error" (Ga. Laws 1890-91, p. 240).]
Georgia's 107th county was named for Col. James Fannin (1804-1836), a Georgian who fought in the War for
Texas Independence and was killed at Goliad.
County Seat:
The legislation creating Fannin County directed the justices
of the county's inferior court to select the location of the
county seat, with the only stipulation that the site be as near
the center of the county as practicable. Until a county seat
was designated and a courthouse built, the act directed that
county business and elections take place at Joab Addington's
Store. Subsequently, the inferior court designated Morganton
as county seat. Reportedly, James Morris, an early settler, named
Morganton after his previous hometown of Morganton, North Carolina.
On March 5, 1856, the General Assembly incorporated Morganton
(Ga. Laws 1855-56, p. 353). In June 1895, two-fifths of the voters
of Fannin County signed a petition to change the county seat
to the town of Blue Ridge. On Aug. 13, 1895, a referendum was
held in which over two-thirds of the voters approved removal
of the county seat. Based on that election, the General Assembly
enacted legislation on Dec. 13, 1895, changing the county seat
from Morganton to Blue Ridge (Ga. Laws 1895, p. 420). Blue Ridge,
named for the Blue Ridge Mountains, had been incorporated by
the legislature by an act of Oct. 24, 1887 (Ga. Laws 1887, p.
647).
Maps
Size of County (Total
Area): 391.5 square miles
County Rank in Total
Area: 63rd out of 159
Population:
Fannin County
City of Blue Ridge
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