Historic Sites in Upson County

The history of Upson County

Upson County was created on December 15, 1824, from parts of Pike and Crawford counties, in territory between the Flint and Ocmulgee rivers that the Muscogee (Creek) had ceded to Georgia in the 1821 Treaty of Indian Springs. It was named for Stephen Upson, a Georgia lawyer who had died only a few months earlier. Thomaston, the county seat, was incorporated in 1825 and honors General Jett Thomas, a veteran of the War of 1812. Settlers from eastern Georgia and the Carolinas built cotton plantations worked by enslaved people, and the county turned early to manufacturing: a cotton mill opened at Waymanville in 1833, and New England textile men arrived two years later. In April 1865, in the final weeks of the Civil War, Union cavalry under General James H. Wilson spent three days raiding the county, destroying homes and factories including the Waymanville mill, and clashed with Confederates at Double Bridges. Textiles remained central after the war, with Thomaston Mills operating from 1899 to 2000. Upson County was the birthplace of John B. Gordon, the Confederate major general who later became governor of Georgia. Historic places a visitor can still see include the Auchumpkee Creek Covered Bridge, a rebuilt version of an 1892 span, and Sprewell Bluff State Park on the Flint River.

Sources: georgiaencyclopedia.org