Historic Sites in Laurens County

The history of Laurens County

Laurens County was established by the legislature in 1807 from part of Wilkinson County, with portions of Washington and Montgomery counties added in 1811. It was named for Colonel John Laurens of South Carolina, an aide to George Washington who was killed by a British patrol in 1782, late in the Revolutionary War. After a temporary seat at Sumpterville near Turkey Creek, the county seat was established in 1812 at Dublin, on a bluff above the Oconee River. Early residents included George M. Troup, a champion of states' rights who became governor; David Blackshear, a general in the War of 1812; and Mirabeau B. Lamar, a future president of the Republic of Texas. Laurens developed as a cotton plantation county, and by 1850 enslaved people made up 45 percent of its population. During Reconstruction, George Linder, an African American minister, was elected to the Georgia legislature in 1868. Five railroads helped lift the county out of the depression of the late 1800s, and by 1911 its farmers were producing more than 31 million pounds of cotton, until the boll weevil wrecked the crop by 1919. In World War II, Captain Bobbie Brown of Laurens County received the Medal of Honor. The Ocute mounds at Blackshear's Ferry recall a far older Native presence.

Sources: georgiaencyclopedia.org