Historic Sites in Terrell County

The history of Terrell County

Terrell County was created by the legislature on February 16, 1856, from parts of Lee and Randolph counties and named for William Terrell, a Georgia physician and statesman. The county seat, Dawson, was established the same year on land purchased from Moses Baldwin, laid out around a central courthouse square and incorporated in 1857. The young town soon supported a library, a debating society, a band and newspapers, and although the Civil War interrupted its business growth, it recovered quickly. Chickasawhatchee Primitive Baptist Church, built in 1858, is the oldest church in the county still on its original site, and the Late Victorian courthouse, designed by William H. Parkins, completed in 1892 and renovated in 1936, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In the civil rights era Terrell County became a focal point in the struggle for Black voting rights. The U.S. attorney general sued county registrars for discriminating against Black applicants, and in United States v. Raines, decided in 1960, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the federal government's authority to bring such suits under the Civil Rights Act of 1957. In 1962, as SNCC organizers held mass meetings and literacy classes to encourage voter registration, arsonists burned Mount Olive and Mount Mary Baptist churches on September 9.

Sources: georgiaencyclopedia.orgen.wikipedia.orgsnccdigital.org