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 . . . ."

On Dec. 10, 1825, the legislature returned the land north of Elkin's Creek in northwest Upson County to Pike County (Ga. Laws 1825, p. 60).

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.

Historical Maps

 

 

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© Carl Vinson Institute of Government, University of Georgia

Go to Historical Atlas of Georgia Counties

Go to Upson County Courthouse page