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Other Information:
Henry County's first superior court met on June 10, 1822 at the
house of William Ruff. The county's first courthouse was built
in 1823 on the town square of the new settlement of McDonough.
This structure burned in 1823, and it is not clear what served
as county courthouse for the next seven years. A new brick courthouse
was built in the public square in 1831, which served until the
current three-story brick courthouse was built in 1897. The new
courthouse was built across the street facing the public square,
which became a park with a tall Confederate monument erected
in the center (see
photo). The courthouse was restored and renovated in 1980-81.
In 2000, construction began on a new annex adjacent to the current
courthouse (see
photo). [Click here
for additional photo of courthouse.]
County Courthouse Historical
Marker: Click
here
County History:
Henry County was created on May 15, 1821 by an act of the General
Assembly (Ga. Laws 1821 Extra. Session, p. 3). [Click here
to read the legal description of Henry County's original boundaries.]
Dooly, Houston, Monroe, Fayette, and Henry County were created
in that order by the Georgia
Land Lottery Act of 1821, which was enacted at a special
session of the General Assembly four months after the Creek Indians
ceded lands between the Ocmulgee and Flint rivers (see
map) on Jan. 8, 1821 in the first Treaty
of Indian Springs. Henry County was organized by an act of
the legislature approved Dec. 24, 1821 (Ga. Laws 1821, p. 44).
Later, portions of Henry County were used to create the following
counties: Newton (1821), DeKalb (1822), Butts (1825), Spalding
(1851), Clayton (1858), and Rockdale (1870).
Georgia's 52nd county was named for American Revolutionary
patriot Patrick
Henry, who is probably best remembered for impassioned "Give
me liberty or give me death!" speech (see text).
Click here
for more information on the history of Henry County.
County Seat: The
Dec. 24, 1821 act organizing Henry County authorized the justices
of the inferior court to select the location of the county seat.
In 1822 or 1823, the court selected one-half of land lot 134
in the seventh district as the location of the county seat and
laid out a town on this site. In an act of Dec. 17, 1823, the
legislature declared this site the permanent seat of government
for Henry County and incorporated it as McDonough (Ga. Laws 1823,
p. 188). The town was named for Thomas
McDonough, a U.S. naval commodore who became famous during
the War of 1812 for defeating a British fleet on Lake Champlain
in 1814.
Maps
Size of County (Total
Area): 324.5 square miles
County Rank in Total
Area: 93rd out of 159
Population:
Henry County
City of McDonough
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