Pickens County Courthouse

 

Note: This is NOT the official web site of Peach County or of any county officials; it is an educational web site about the history of the county courthouse and the county itself.  For the address and phone number of the courthouse and county officials, see the NaCO web page for Peach County, linked below:

Address and Phone Number: See NaCO web page for Pickens County

Location: Jasper

Date Built: 1949

Architectural Style: Stripped Classical

Designer: Bothwell and Nash

Other Information: It is not known what served as Pickens County courthouse for the first five years after the county's creation, but the county finally built a brick courthouse in 1859. The fate of this building is not known, but it was succeeded by a two-story brick building [see picture postcard from the early 1900s]. In 1947, this courthouse was destroyed by fire, and a new courthouse (with an exterior of Georgia marble from nearby Tate) was completed in 1949.

County Courthouse Historical Marker: Click here

County History: Pickens County was created from Cherokee and Gilmer counties on Dec. 5, 1853 by an act of the General Assembly (Ga. Laws 1853-54, p. 306). Additional portions of Cherokee County were transferred to Pickens County in 1869, as were parts of Gilmer County in 1858 and 1863. No counties have been created from Pickens County, but areas of the county were transferred to Dawson County (1857), Gordon County (1860), and Cherokee County (1870).

Georgia's 101st county was named for Gen. Andrew Pickens (1739-1817), who gained fame during the American Revolution for his victories over the British in South Carolina and Georgia. Late in the war, Pickens also led a campaign in north Georgia against the Cherokee Indians, who had sided with the British in the Revolution. In Oct. 1782, after a victory against the Cherokee, he forced them to sign a treaty at Long Swamp (located in today's Pickens County) in which the Cherokees agreed to give up claims to land between the Savannah and Chattahoochee rivers.

County Seat: The act creating Pickens County directed the judges of the inferior court to select a location for the county seat. They chose a site on the Old Federal Road and named it Jasper, after Sergeant William Jasper, the South Carolina patriot who was killed while trying to save his unit's flag during the siege of Savannah in 1779 [see Jasper monument]. The town of Jasper was incorporated by an act of the legislature approved Dec. 22, 1857.

Maps

• Historical Maps of Pickens County
• Georgia DOT Map of Pickens County, pdf (487K)

Size of County (Total Area): 232.8

County Rank in Total Area: 131st out of 159

Population:

Pickens County

• 22,983 (2000)
• Pickens County Historical Population Profile

City of Jasper

• 2,167 (2000)

© Carl Vinson Institute of Government, University of Georgia

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