Harris County, Georgia

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Harris County
County
Harris County Georgia Courthouse.JPG
County courthouse in Hamilton
Map of Georgia highlighting Harris County.svg
Location within the U.S. state of Georgia
Georgia in United States.svg
Georgia's location within the U.S.
Coordinates: 32°44′N84°55′W / 32.74°N 84.91°W / 32.74; -84.91
CountryFlag of the United States.svg United States
StateFlag of Georgia (U.S. state).svg  Georgia
FoundedDecember 14, 1827;197 years ago (1827-12-14)
Named after Charles Harris
Seat Hamilton
Largest city Pine Mountain
Area
 • Total
473 sq mi (1,230 km2)
 • Land464 sq mi (1,200 km2)
 • Water9.1 sq mi (24 km2)  1.9%
Population
 (2020)
 • Total
34,668
 • Estimate 
(2023)
36,654 Decrease2.svg
 • Density73/sq mi (28/km2)
Time zone UTC−5 (Eastern)
 • Summer (DST) UTC−4 (EDT)
Congressional district 3rd
Website www.harriscountyga.gov

Harris County is a county located in the west-central portion of the U.S. state of Georgia; its western border with the state of Alabama is formed by the Chattahoochee River. As of the 2020 census, the population was 34,668. [1] The county seat is Hamilton. [2] The largest city in the county is Pine Mountain, a resort town that is home to the Franklin D. Roosevelt State Park (the largest state park in Georgia). Harris County was created on December 14, 1827, and named for Charles Harris, a Georgia judge and attorney. [3] Harris County is part of the Columbus, GA-AL metropolitan area and has become a popular suburban and exurban destination of residence for families relocating from Columbus. Because of this, Harris has become the sixth-wealthiest county in Georgia in terms of per capita income and the wealthiest in the state outside of Metro Atlanta.

Contents

History

The county was settled by European Americans largely after the federal government had removed the indigenous Creek people (Muscogee) in the 1830s, under treaties by which they ceded most of their homelands to the United States. They were relocated to Indian Territory west of the Mississippi River.

In the antebellum era, parts of the county were developed for cotton plantations, the premier commodity crop. Planters acquired numerous enslaved African Americans as laborers from the Upper South through the domestic slave trade.

The County Courthouse was designed by Edward Columbus Hosford of Georgia and completed in 1906.

Moonshiners were active in the mountain areas of the county in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Both whites and blacks took part in this, and were common drinking patrons. [4]

Lynchings

On January 22, 1912, a black woman and three black men were lynched in Hamilton, the county seat, for the alleged murder of young local white landowner Norman Hadley. He was described by journalist Karen Branan in her 2016 book about these events as a white, "near penniless plowboy-playboy" [5] and "notorious predator of black women." [6]

Of this group, Dusky Crutchfield was the first woman lynched in Georgia. [5] The lynching case attracted attention of national northern newspapers. [7] [8] Also murdered by the lynch mob were Eugene Harrington, Burrell Hardaway, [9] and Johnie Moore. (Note: There was confusion about the names of victims at the time, and variations in spelling have been published.) [4]

The four had been taken in for questioning about Hadley's murder by Sheriff Marion Madison "Buddie" Hadley, but never arrested. Lynched as scapegoats by a white mob of 100 men, they were later shown to have been utterly innocent. As an example of the complex relationships in the town and county, Johnie Moore was a mixed-race cousin of the sheriff; and Norman Hadley was the sheriff's nephew. [5] [4] [9]

In 1947, prosperous farmer Henry "Peg" Gilbert, a married African-American man who owned and farmed 100 acres in Troup County, was arrested by officials from neighboring Harris County and charged with harboring a fugitive. The 47-year-old father was accused in the case of Gus Davidson, an African-American man accused of fatally shooting a white man in Harris County and who had disappeared. Four days later Gilbert was dead, shot while held in jail by the Harris County Sheriff, who said it was self-defense. No charges were filed against him.

In 2016 the Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project of Northeastern University reported on Gilbert's death in custody. They had found that Henry Gilbert had been beaten severely before his death, and shot five times. They asserted he had been detained and killed because whites resented his success as a farmer. [10] [11] Economic issues and competition were often at the bottom of lynchings. A white man took over Gilbert's land, cheating his family out of everything he had built.

Geography

View of Harris County on Pine Mountain Harris county view 2.JPG
View of Harris County on Pine Mountain

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 473 square miles (1,230 km2), of which 464 square miles (1,200 km2) are land and 9.1 square miles (24 km2) (1.9%) are covered by water. [12]

The county is located in the Piedmont region of the state, with forests, farmland, and rolling hills covering much of the county. The Pine Mountain Range begins in the county, and runs across the northernmost parts of the county, with the highest point on the range found at Dowdell's Knob near the Meriwether County line.

The majority of Harris County is located in the middle Chattahoochee River–Lake Harding subbasin of the ACF River Basin (Apalachicola–Chattahoochee–Flint River Basin), with the exception of the county's southeastern border area, south of Ellerslie, which is located in the middle Chattahoochee River–Walter F. George Lake subbasin of the same ACF River Basin as that part of the county is drained by Bull Creek, which flows into Upatoi Creek south of Columbus. [13]

Lake Harding and Goat Rock Lake both form much of the county's western border along the Chattahoochee, and both are very popular recreational destinations, especially for metro Columbus residents.

Major highways

Adjacent counties

Communities

Cities

Towns

Unincorporated communities

Demographics

Historical population
CensusPop.Note%±
1830 5,105—
1840 13,933172.9%
1850 14,7215.7%
1860 13,736−6.7%
1870 13,284−3.3%
1880 15,75818.6%
1890 16,7976.6%
1900 18,0097.2%
1910 17,886−0.7%
1920 15,775−11.8%
1930 11,140−29.4%
1940 11,4282.6%
1950 11,265−1.4%
1960 11,167−0.9%
1970 11,5203.2%
1980 15,46434.2%
1990 17,78815.0%
2000 23,69533.2%
2010 32,02435.2%
2020 34,6688.3%
2023 (est.)36,654 [14] 5.7%
U.S. Decennial Census [15]
1790-1880 [16] 1890-1910 [17]
1920-1930 [18] 1930-1940 [19]
1940-1950 [20] 1960-1980 [21]
1980-2000 [22] 2010 [23]
Harris County racial composition as of 2020 [24]
RaceNum.Perc.
White (non-Hispanic)25,92574.78%
Black or African American (non-Hispanic)5,17014.91%
Native American 1010.29%
Asian 3881.12%
Pacific Islander 210.06%
Other/Mixed 1,6464.75%
Hispanic or Latino 1,4174.09%

As of the 2020 United States census, there were 34,668 people, 12,156 households, and 9,581 families residing in the county.

Politics

Like all of Georgia except the Unionist Fannin, Towns, Pickens and Gilmer counties, which were in the upland region and could not support plantations, Harris County was historically dominated by a majority of conservative white voters after the Civil War. They belonged to the Democratic Party. From the end of Reconstruction to 1980, they supported Republican presidential candidates only twice, in 1964 (when Barry Goldwater carried the state in a landslide) and 1972 (during Richard Nixon's national landslide).

But the passage of civil rights legislation by the national Democratic Party and social and cultural disruption of the era resulted in white conservatives beginning to support the Republican Party. In 1984, the state swung from having given a 16.8 percent victory to the 'favorite son' of Georgia, Jimmy Carter, in 1976, to a nearly 20-point victory for Ronald Reagan in his second term. In this, it was part of the realignment of white conservatives across the South. Since then, these voters in Harris County have voted for Republican presidential candidates. 1984 is the last time that a Democrat gained more than 40 percent of the vote. This trend has been attributed to the effect of Columbus's suburbs extending into the county, but it is part of the broader realignment among conservatives in the region.

United States presidential election results for Harris County, Georgia [25]
Year Republican Democratic Third party(ies)
No. %No. %No. %
2024 16,28372.84%5,97626.73%940.42%
2020 14,31971.59%5,45727.28%2261.13%
2016 11,93672.33%4,08624.76%4802.91%
2012 11,19772.14%4,14526.71%1791.15%
2008 10,64871.25%4,18428.00%1130.76%
2004 8,87871.82%3,40027.50%840.68%
2000 5,55464.87%2,91234.01%961.12%
1996 3,82953.70%2,77938.97%5237.33%
1992 3,31647.64%2,67938.49%96513.86%
1988 3,41463.94%1,90535.68%200.37%
1984 3,13859.95%2,09640.05%00.00%
1980 2,00140.49%2,80756.80%1342.71%
1976 1,54435.05%2,86164.95%00.00%
1972 2,61778.87%70121.13%00.00%
1968 1,02125.89%1,07227.18%1,85146.93%
1964 2,16669.74%94030.26%00.00%
1960 73535.05%1,36264.95%00.00%
1956 56329.79%1,32770.21%00.00%
1952 54428.36%1,37471.64%00.00%
1948 13812.14%75966.75%24021.11%
1944 798.13%89391.87%00.00%
1940 717.15%91492.04%80.81%
1936 545.36%95394.54%10.10%
1932 212.40%85197.26%30.34%
1928 14420.72%55179.28%00.00%
1924 203.87%45788.39%407.74%
1920 92.21%39897.79%00.00%
1916 315.13%55091.06%233.81%
1912 284.54%58594.81%40.65%

Education

The Harris County School District holds preschool to grade 12 and consists of four elementary schools, an intermediate school, a middle school, and a high school. [26] The district headquarters is located in Hamilton, and has 274 full-time teachers and over 4,411 students spread out over seven schools. [27]

Notable people

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Census - Geography Profile: Harris County, Georgia". United States Census Bureau . Retrieved December 27, 2022.
  2. ↑ "Find a County". National Association of Counties. Retrieved June 7, 2011.
  3. ↑ Gannett, Henry (1905). The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States. Govt. Print. Off. pp.  150.
  4. 1 2 3 Karen Branan, The Family Tree: A Lynching in Georgia, a Legacy of Secrets, and My Search for the Truth, Atria Books, 2016.
  5. 1 2 3 Jeff Calder, " 'Family Tree’ unpacks mystery of a 1912 Georgia lynching", Books & Literature, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, January 9, 2016, accessed April 6, 2016.
  6. ↑ Karen Branan, "Getting to the Roots of My Family Tree", Coming to the Table, 2014, accessed April 6, 2016.
  7. ↑ "Woman and 3 Men Lynched by Mob", Chicago Daily Tribune, January 23, 1912, accessed April 6, 2016.
  8. ↑ (Associated Press), "Three Colored Men and Woman Lynched", VALLEY SENTINEL (Carlisle, Pennsylvania), January 26, 1912, accessed April 6, 2016.
  9. 1 2 "Burrell Hardaway" Archived April 17, 2016, at the Wayback Machine , Georgia Lynching Project Circa 1875-1930, Project of Emory University, 2016, accessed April 6, 2016.
  10. ↑ CRRJ Provides First Full Account of Notorious 1947 Georgia Jailhouse Killing, Civil Rights Restorative Justice Project, August 22, 2016, retrieved August 25, 2016
  11. ↑ Dunn, Tara; Kong, Ariel Goeun Lee (2016). Henry Gilbert. Northeastern University School of Law (Report). Boston, MA: Civil Rights Restorative Justice Project. Archived from the original on August 26, 2016. Retrieved August 25, 2016.
  12. ↑ "US Gazetteer files: 2010, 2000, and 1990". United States Census Bureau. February 12, 2011. Retrieved April 23, 2011.
  13. ↑ "Georgia Soil and Water Conservation Commission Interactive Mapping Experience". Georgia Soil and Water Conservation Commission. Archived from the original on October 3, 2018. Retrieved November 20, 2015.
  14. ↑ "Annual Estimates of the Resident Population for Counties: April 1, 2020 to July 1, 2023". United States Census Bureau. Retrieved March 31, 2024.
  15. ↑ "Decennial Census of Population and Housing by Decades". United States Census Bureau.
  16. ↑ "1880 Census Population by Counties 1790-1800" (PDF). United States Census Bureau. 1880.
  17. ↑ "1910 Census of Population - Georgia" (PDF). United States Census Bureau. 1910.
  18. ↑ "1930 Census of Population - Georgia" (PDF). United States Census Bureau. 1930.
  19. ↑ "1940 Census of Population - Georgia" (PDF). United States Census Bureau. 1940.
  20. ↑ "1950 Census of Population - Georgia -" (PDF). United States Census Bureau. 1950.
  21. ↑ "1980 Census of Population - Number of Inhabitants - Georgia" (PDF). United States Census Bureau. 1980.
  22. ↑ "2000 Census of Population - Population and Housing Unit Counts - Georgia" (PDF). United States Census Bureau. 2000.
  23. ↑ "State & County QuickFacts". United States Census Bureau. Archived from the original on June 7, 2011. Retrieved February 16, 2014.
  24. ↑ "Explore Census Data". data.census.gov. Retrieved December 14, 2021.
  25. ↑ Leip, David. "Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections". uselectionatlas.org. Retrieved March 20, 2018.
  26. ↑ Georgia Board of Education [ permanent dead link ], Retrieved June 19, 2010.
  27. ↑ School Stats, Retrieved June 19, 2010.

32°44′N84°55′W / 32.74°N 84.91°W / 32.74; -84.91

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