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Other Information:
For most Georgia counties created in the 19th century, the enabling
legislation authorized the county's inferior court to select
a county seat and contract for erection of a courthouse. However,
the 1853 legislation creating Kinchafoonee County (subsequently
renamed Webster County) provided for selecting a county seat
-- but not erecting a courthouse. It is unclear where court sessions
and other county business initially was conducted. However, the
Dec. 22, 1857 act incorporating Preston directed that elections
be held at the courthouse or some other convenient place in the
town. Some accounts suggest that Webster County's first courthouse
was built in 1860. Whenever it was constructed, the courthouse
survived until 1914, when it was destroyed by fire. The current
courthouse was built the following year.
County Courthouse Historical
Marker: Click
here
County History:
Webster County was created from Stewart County on Dec. 16, 1853
by an act of the General Assembly (Ga. Laws 1853, p. 304). [Click
here
to see the legal description of the county's original boundaries.]
Initially, Georgia's 104th county was named Kinchafoonee County,
after the Kinchafoonee Creek that flows through the county. ["Kinchafoonee"
was a Creek Indian word that apparently referred to a mortar
or bone device for cracking nuts.] However, many residents of
the new county thought the name was awkward, undignified, and
would invite ridicule from outsiders -- so they asked that the
county be renamed. On Feb. 21, 1856, the legislature changed
the name of Kinchafoonee County to Webster County (Ga. Laws 1855-56,
p. 414). The new name honored the famous U.S. orator and politician,
Daniel
Webster (1782-1852).
County Seat: The
first white settlement in the area of Stewart County that would
form Kinchafoonee County was Lannahassee, which was settled in
1836 (see
map). In 1851, residents of Lannahassee apparently moved
to a nearby location, which they named McIntosh. The 1853 act
creating Kinchafoonee County named Oliver Taggart, Mason H. Bush,
Chappell Coy, Robert Batey, and James Holley as commissioners
with authority to locate the site of the county seat and to purchase
the land and have it laid off into lots. The act also called
for election of county officials on the second Monday in Feb.
1854. If a county seat had not been designated by the time of
that election, the county's new inferior court was assume all
power to designate the county seat. Though the date of the action
is not clear, either the commissioners or the inferior court
selected McIntosh as county seat.
On Feb. 21, 1856, the legislature changed the county seat
from McIntosh to Preston (Ga. Laws 1855-56, p. 414). Some sources
have suggested that this was just a name change, though the actual
text of the legislative act states: "Sec. III. And be it
further enacted. That the county site of said county of Webster
be changed from McIntosh to Preston."
On Dec. 22, 1857, the legislature incorporated the town of
Preston (Ga. Laws 1857, p. 187). Preston is believed to have
been named for former South Carolina senator William
C. Preston (1794-1860).
Maps
Size of County (Total
Area): 210.3 square miles
County Rank in Total
Area: 157th out of 159
Population:
Webster County
City of Preston
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