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Other Information: The
Dec. 20, 1824 legislation organizing Upson County authorized
the justices of the county's first inferior court to provide
for construction of a courthouse and jail. However, no action
was taken at first, and the house of John Turner was rented for
holding superior court. Construction of a brick courthouse was
begun in 1826 -- but not completed until 1828. This structure
was torn down in 1852, with its brick used for construction of
a new courthouse. However, there was not enough brick, so the
second floor of the new courthouse was built of wood. Upson County's
second courthouse served until the present courthouse was completed
in 1908 (see postcard
and aerial
photograph). The courthouse underwent a restoration in 1968,
with a second renovation begun in 2000.
In 1998, the Upson County commissioners and county government
agencies moved out of the courthouse and other buildings into
the recently renovated three-building complex that once housed
the R.E. Lee High School (see
photo and story). Earlier, county voters had approved a special
purpose local option sales tax to cover the cost of remodeling
the school complex and renovating the 1908 courthouse to make
it ADA-compliant.
County Courthouse Historical
Marker: Click
here
County History: Upson County was created from Crawford
and Pike counties on Dec. 15, 1824 by an act of the General Assembly
(Ga. Laws 1824, p. 43). According to that act, the county's boundaries
were specified as:
. . . all that territory embraced by a line beginning at
Flint river, in Crawford county, where the Auchumka creek enters
said river, thence up said creek to the fork, thence on a straight
line to the corner of Monroe and Pike counties, thence along
the line dividing said counties to the district line of the
eleventh and seventh districts formerly in Monroe thence west
on said line to Flint river, thence down said river to the
place of beginning . . . .
Georgia's 59th county was named for Stephen Upson, a noted
Georgia lawyer of the times. Born in 1784 or 1785 in Waterbury,
Conn., Upson graduated from Yale University in 1804. Because
of health reasons, he moved southerward -- first to Virginia,
and then in 1807 to Lexington, Ga. Here, he practiced law and
became a respected friend of William Crawford. Upson died in
Aug. 1824 at age 40 and was buried in the Presbyterian Cemetery
in Lexington. Although it is not clear that Upson ever served
in public office, his reputation as an attorney and jurist led
the General Assembly to name a new county in his honor four months
after his death.
County Seat: Legislation organizing Upson County approved
on Dec. 20, 1824, directedt the justices of the county's first
inferior court to select the site for the county seat, which
was to be as near the center of the county "as convenience
will admit" (Ga. Laws 1824, p. 45). The justices selected
a site on the principal road through the county almost in the
geographic center of the new county. It is not clear whether
a settlement already existed on this site -- but in any event,
the site selected for the county seat became known as Thomaston
(named for Gen. Jett Thomas, who fought in the War of 1812 and
earlier built the University of Georgia's first building in Athens
and the state capitol at Milledgeville). On June 11, 1825, the
legislature incorporated Thomaston and designated it as Upson's
county seat (Ga. Laws 1825 Ex. Sess., p. 23).
Maps
Size of County (Total
Area): 327.7 square miles
County Rank in Total
Area: 91st out of 159
Population:
Upson County
City of Thomaston
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