Historic Sites in Clinch County

The history of Clinch County

Clinch County was created on February 14, 1850, from parts of Lowndes, Ware, and Appling counties, and it later gave up land to Atkinson, Coffee, Echols, and Lanier counties. It is named for Duncan Lamont Clinch, a veteran of the War of 1812 who later served Georgia in Congress. The county's eastern and southeastern sections take in part of the Okefenokee Swamp. The first county seat was Magnolia, but in 1860 about 275 residents petitioned to move the seat to a settlement founded in 1853 by Dr. John Homer Mattox, which had become a station on the Atlantic and Gulf Railroad. The legislature approved the move that year, and the town, first known as Homersville, was incorporated as Homerville in 1869. After the Civil War, large sawmills and turpentine distilleries made timber and naval stores the heart of the local economy. DuPont was settled in 1858 by Captain J. P. A. DuPont, and Argyle was established in 1885 under the name Saussy before being renamed in 1899. Fargo, on the Suwannee River, incorporated in 1992. The Clinch County Courthouse in Homerville was built in 1896 and renovated and enlarged by the Works Progress Administration in 1936. Notable people associated with the county include actor Ossie Davis, U.S. congresswoman Iris Faircloth Blitch, and Methodist bishop Arthur J. Moore.

Sources: georgiaencyclopedia.orgen.wikipedia.orgen.wikipedia.org