Historic Sites in Worth County

The history of Worth County

Worth County was created on December 20, 1853, from parts of Dooly and Irwin counties, and it was named for Major General William J. Worth of New York, a hero of the Mexican War; Major William Harris, who had served under Worth and helped organize the county, proposed the name. The land had belonged to the Muscogee (Creek), and after it changed hands in 1821 the village of Pindartown became an early center, serving as the only post office between two rivers and as a stop on the stagecoach route between Milledgeville and Tallahassee. Finding a permanent county seat took half a century. Government began at San Bernard and moved to Isabella in 1854, but after the Brunswick and Albany Railroad was built three miles south of Isabella in 1872, a long struggle followed that ended with Sylvester becoming the seat in 1904. The next year, parts of Worth were used to create Tift and Turner counties. Apart from the men it sent into battle, the county came through the Civil War largely untouched. Michigan governor Chase S. Osborn kept Possum Poke, a winter residence and hunting lodge, near Poulan. Peanuts became the defining crop, and Sylvester, known as the Peanut Capital of the World, hosts Georgia's annual Peanut Festival.

Sources: georgiaencyclopedia.orggeorgiaencyclopedia.orgen.wikipedia.org