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Other Information:
Coffee County's first courthouse -- a simple structure built
of logs -- was erected sometime between 1855 and 1858. In 1889,
this courthouse was replaced by another log structure, which
burned in 1898. The county contracted for a more substantial
courthouse -- a large two-story brick building with clock tower
completed in 1900. [Click here,
here,
and here
for photos.] This structure burned in 1938 and was replaced the
present two-story brick courthouse, which was completed in 1940.
In 1991, a large addition was constructed as part of a renovation
of the courthouse. [Click here
for more information on Coffee County's early courthouses.]
County Courthouse Historical
Marker: Click
here
County History:
Coffee County was created by an act of the General Assembly approved
on Feb. 9, 1854 (Ga. Laws 1854, p. 294). This area originally
was Creek land. Most of the county was ceded to Georgia by the
Treaty
of Fort Jackson in 1814, though the northern portion was
ceded in Jan. 1818 by the
Treaty of the Creek Agency. On Dec. 15, 1818, the Georgia
legislature divided the lands ceded by the two treaties into
Appling, Early, and Irwin counties. Most of what would later
become Coffee County fell in the original boundaries of Appling
County, though the legislature transferred much of this area
to Telfair County in 1819 and 1825. When Coffee County was created
in 1854, it was formed primarily from the region of Telfair County
south of the Ocmulgee River, with smaller portions added from
Irwin, Clinch, and Ware counties. [Click here
for a legal description of the original boundaries.]
Georgia's 108th county was named for former soldier, state
legislator, and congressman Gen.
John E. Coffee (1782-1836).
Portions of Coffee County were used to create the following
counties: Berrien (1856), Jeff Davis (1905), and Atkinson (1917).
County Seat:
The 1854 act creating Coffee County provided for election of
county officials -- including five justices of the inferior court
-- on the first Monday in April 1855. The act gave the inferior
court justices full authority to select a site for the county
seat, purchase the land and lay it off into lots, and to levy
a special tax and contract for building a courthouse and other
county buildings.
Subsequently, James Pearson donated 50 acres of land near
the center of the county for use as the county seat. The land
was surveyed and laid out in lots. The new town was named for
Illinois U.S. Sen. Stephen
A. Douglas. Coffee County's seat of government was not served
by any railroad for the first four decades of its existence,
and the town almost disappeared. However, in the early 1890s,
a railroad was built connecting Douglas with McDonald, a train
station on the Albany & Brunswick Railroad, which crossed
southern Coffee County. This helped revive Douglas, and the legislature
incorporated it as a town on Dec. 10, 1895 (Ga. Laws 1895, p.
213).
Maps
Size of County (Total
Area): 602.7 square miles
County Rank in Total
Area: 14th out of 159
Population:
Coffee County
City of Douglas
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