Historic Sites in Quitman County

The history of Quitman County

Quitman County was created on December 10, 1858, from parts of Randolph and Stewart counties on the Chattahoochee River, becoming Georgia's 128th county. It was named for John A. Quitman, a Mexican War general and governor of Mississippi who had died that year and was known for his defense of states' rights; he never lived in Georgia. The Muscogee (Creek) people lived along this part of the Chattahoochee, and the remains of a fortified settlement, probably built by prehistoric Native Americans, once stood where Cool Branch meets the river. Georgetown, the county seat and only town, was settled in 1831 and 1832 as Tabanana, after a nearby creek, and was renamed Georgetown in 1836. By the mid-1800s steamboats on the Chattahoochee were carrying cotton, tying the county to river trade. From the 1940s into the 1960s, political boss Joe Hurst dominated county affairs, and in 1962 Jimmy Carter successfully contested a state senate primary after fraud was exposed in Quitman County's returns. Much of the county's western border now lies beneath Lake Walter F. George, created in the 1960s. The courthouse, built in 1939 with federal relief funds after the original wooden one burned in 1920, and the old county jail are historic landmarks, and in 2006 voters merged Georgetown and Quitman County into a single consolidated government.

Sources: georgiaencyclopedia.orggqc-ga.orgtheamericanconservative.com