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Other Information: The
1870 legislation creating McDuffie County provided that the
county's ordinary [probate judge] was to select a lot in Thomson
on which to build a courthouse and jail. Until a courthouse
could be built, county officials rented the first two floors
of the Masonic building for holding court. In Aug. 1872, the
legislature authorized the ordinary to issue bonds up to $15,000
to finance construction of a courthouse and jail, with the county
to levy a special tax to repay the bondholders. Subsequently,
a courthouse was erected (see
postcard), which remains in use today. Wings were added
and the courtroom was enlarged in 1934. Elevators and stairs
were part of a major renovation in 1970.
Street Address and Map:
County History: McDuffie County was created from Columbia
and Warren counties on Oct. 18, 1870 by an act of the General
Assembly (Ga. Laws 1870, p. 20). Georgia's 134th county was named
for former South Carolina governor, congressman, and U.S. senator
George
McDuffie (1790-1851).
County Seat: The act creating McDuffie County designated
Thomson as its county seat, though leaving it to the ordinary
[probate judge] to select the actual site for location of the
courthouse and jail. When the ordinary declined to choose a site,
the county's grand jury in 1871 appointed a committee to designate
the land lot on which to build the courthouse. What began as
a small settlement in Columbia County became a train stop on
the Georgia Railroad in the 1830s. In 1853, the small town was
named in honor of J. Edgar Thomson, who surveyed the route of
the Georgia Railroad through the settlement twenty years earlier.
In 1854, the legislature incorporated Thomson.
Maps
Size of County (Total
Area): 266.3 square miles
County Rank in Total
Area: 117th out of 159
Population:
McDuffie County
City of Thomson
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