Historic Sites in Oconee County

The history of Oconee County

Oconee County was created in 1875 from the western part of Clarke County, and it takes its name from the Oconee River along its eastern boundary. Watkinsville, named for Colonel Robert Watkins of Augusta, appears in records around 1791, and in 1802 John Cobb donated lots to establish the settlement on the frontier between Creek and Cherokee lands. For decades the town served as the seat of Clarke County, and cotton plantations worked by enslaved people dominated the local economy; in 1860 enslaved residents made up nearly half of Watkinsville's population. When Clarke County moved its seat to Athens in 1872, residents of the western district demanded a county of their own, and in 1875 Watkinsville became the seat of the new Oconee County. The Eagle Tavern, built around 1801 and now a museum and welcome center, is linked to a story of a Confederate soldier who hid in its attic as Union troops passed through after the July 1864 Battle of Sunshine Church. The Elder Mill Covered Bridge, built in 1897, remains one of the few wooden bridges in Georgia still open to traffic. The county also includes the towns of Bishop, Bogart and North High Shoals, and Jeannette Rankin, the first woman elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, later owned property here.

Sources: georgiaencyclopedia.orggeorgiaencyclopedia.org