Irwin County, Georgia

Irwin County
County
Irwin County Courthouse, Ocilla
Location within the U.S. state of Georgia
Georgia's location within the U.S.
Coordinates: 31°36′N83°16′W / 31.6°N 83.27°W / 31.6; -83.27
Country	United States
State	Georgia
Founded	December 15, 1818;205 years ago (1818-12-15)
Seat	Ocilla
Largest city	Ocilla
Area
• Total	363 sq mi (940 km2)
• Land	354 sq mi (920 km2)
• Water	8.4 sq mi (22 km2)  2.3%
Population  (2020)
• Total	9,666
• Density	27/sq mi (10/km2)
Time zone	UTC−5 (Eastern)
• Summer (DST)	UTC−4 (EDT)
Congressional district	8th
Website	www.ocillachamber.net

Irwin County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 9,666. ^[1] The county seat is Ocilla. ^[2] The county was created on December 15, 1818. It was named for Governor Jared Irwin. ^[3]

In the last years of the American Civil War, Irwin County gained the nickname of the Republic of Irwin due to the Unionism of many of its residents. ^[4] The location where Jefferson Davis was captured ^[5] is located in Irwin County near Irwinville.

History

The territories of Appling, Irwin, and Early counties were land newly ceded in 1814 and 1818. These counties were created by a legislative act on December 15, 1818. All or portions of Irwin's five adjacent counties were created from Irwin county along with all of Cook, Colquitt, Lanier, Lowndes, counties and portions of Atkinson, Brooks, Echols, Wilcox, and Worth counties. Irwin was divided into 16 districts of 20 miles and 10 chains square with lots of 70 chains square containing 490 acres according to the Act of 1818. In 1820 each lot was priced at $18, but by 1831 the price was down to $5 per lot. ^[6]

Irwin County had 372 white residents and 39 slaves in 1820, when the census covered a large portion of central south Georgia. In 1825, Lowndes County was formed out of the 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th, 15th, and 16th land districts in what was then the southern half of the county. In 1830, the county had 1,066 whites, 109 slaves, and 5 free people of color. In 1840, Irwin County had 1,772 whites and 266 slaves. In 1850. Irwin County had 2,874 whites, 459 slaves, and 1 free person of color. In 1853, Worth County was formed out of part of Irwin County. In 1854, Coffee County was also formed from Irwin. In 1860, Irwin County had 1,453 whites and 246 slaves. It was one of a few counties in Georgia outside of mountainous northern Georgia with slaves accounting for a small percentage of its population.

Civil War

During the American Civil War, like the United States in general, Irwin County was also ideologically divided. The county was one of the poorest at the time in Georgia. It was home to a number of Southern Unionists who opposed secession and the Confederacy. The county also provided several regiments to the Confederate Army including:

• Company F "Irwin Volunteers", 49th Regiment Georgia Infantry.

In May 1863, several companies of Duncan Lamont Clinch Jr's Fourth Georgia Cavalry were charged with searching Irwin County for deserters. They spent a month searching the county, but were only able to find twenty-two deserters on May 22, the day they arrived. The deserters were sent to Savannah for enlistment or prosecution. ^[7]

A prominent Unionist in the county was Willis Jackson Bone. He lived west of Irwinville, near the Alapaha River. He was a miller and operated a steam-powered mill on what was then Bones Pond and presently Crystal Lake. Because he was a gristmill operator, Bone was exempt from conscription. During the Civil War, he helped a number of escaped slaves, Confederate deserters, and escaped Union prisoners hide in the swamps along the river. In February 1865, Bone and a large assembly of others gathered in Irwinville. Those assembled declared Irwin County part of the Union again. A lieutenant of the local militia protested the action, but was knocked down with a musket by Bone. Three cheers for Abraham Lincoln followed. The assembly then took after the lieutenant and the enrolling officer Gideon Brown. They and other Confederate sympathizers were chased out of town and threatened with death if they should return. ^{[8] [9]} Willis Jackson Bone was hanged near his pond in late April 1865 after he killed a local justice of the peace named Jack Walker while Bone was bringing food to an escaped slave named Toney. Walker had tried to take Toney into custody. ^[10]

A few months later, Irwinville became the site of the capture of Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Davis was on his way from the capital of the Confederacy at Richmond, Virginia to board a ship with his family and flee to safety in England, Davis stopped at a hotel in Irwinville owned by Doctor G.E. White on the evening of May 9, 1865. There he conversed and socialized with the locals and no one had suspected that they were in the presence of a man of such esteem. Davis and his family moved to an encampment beside a nearby creek bed only a couple of miles from the hotel after they were done talking with the citizens of Irwinville and sometime in the early morning of May 10, the encampment was alarmed by the sound of gunfire. Davis tried to escape towards the creek wearing an overcoat and his wife had tied her scarf around his shoulders, but members of the First Wisconsin and Fourth Michigan Cavalry Regiments captured him. He was taken to Fortress Monroe, Virginia and held for two years. ^[11] The location is now the Jefferson Davis Memorial Historic Site.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 363 square miles (940 km²), of which 354 square miles (920 km²) is land and 8.4 square miles (22 km²) (2.3%) is water. ^[12]

The majority and entire central and western portion of Irwin County, bordered by a line running southeast from Fitzgerald, is located in the Alapaha River sub-basin of the Suwannee River basin. The eastern corner of the county is located in the Satilla River sub-basin of the St. Marys-Satilla River basin ^[13]

Major highways

• U.S. Route 129
• U.S. Route 319
• State Route 11
• State Route 32
• State Route 35
• State Route 90
• State Route 107
• State Route 125
• State Route 158
• State Route 206

Adjacent counties

• Ben Hill County (north) (created 1906 from Irwin and Wilcox counties)
• Coffee County (east) (created in 1854 from Clinch, Irwin, Telfair, and Ware counties.)
• Berrien County (south) (created in 1856 from Coffee, Irwin, and Lowndes counties)
• Tift County (southwest) (created 1905 from Berrien, Irwin, and Worth counties.)
• Turner County (northwest) (created from Dooly, Irwin, Wilcox, and Worth counties)

Communities

City

• Ocilla

Unincorporated communities

• Irwinville
• Mystic
• Waterloo
• Wray
• Abba

Demographics

Historical population

Census	Pop.	Note	%±
1820	411		—
1830	1,180		187.1%
1840	2,038		72.7%
1850	3,334		63.6%
1860	1,699		−49.0%
1870	1,837		8.1%
1880	2,696		46.8%
1890	6,316		134.3%
1900	13,645		116.0%
1910	10,461		−23.3%
1920	12,670		21.1%
1930	12,199		−3.7%
1940	12,936		6.0%
1950	11,973		−7.4%
1960	9,211		−23.1%
1970	8,036		−12.8%
1980	8,988		11.8%
1990	8,649		−3.8%
2000	9,931		14.8%
2010	9,538		−4.0%
2020	9,666		1.3%
2023 (est.)	9,120	[14]	−5.6%
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]

Irwin County racial composition as of 2020 ^[24]

Race	Num.	Perc.
White (non-Hispanic)	6,402	66.23%
Black or African American (non-Hispanic)	2,224	23.01%
Native American	15	0.16%
Asian	119	1.23%
Pacific Islander	1	0.01%
Other/Mixed	242	2.5%
Hispanic or Latino	663	6.86%

As of the 2020 United States census, there were 9,666 people, 3,329 households, and 2,090 families residing in the county.

Politics

United States presidential election results for Irwin County, Georgia ^[25]

Year	Republican		Democratic		Third party
	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%
2020	3,134	75.19%	1,008	24.18%	26	0.62%
2016	2,716	74.01%	891	24.28%	63	1.72%
2012	2,538	68.34%	1,141	30.72%	35	0.94%
2008	2,605	67.84%	1,197	31.17%	38	0.99%
2004	2,347	68.67%	1,051	30.75%	20	0.59%
2000	1,720	60.31%	1,105	38.74%	27	0.95%
1996	1,085	42.72%	1,225	48.23%	230	9.06%
1992	973	34.50%	1,366	48.44%	481	17.06%
1988	1,226	57.00%	918	42.68%	7	0.33%
1984	1,330	59.51%	905	40.49%	0	0.00%
1980	1,056	40.12%	1,555	59.08%	21	0.80%
1976	561	21.80%	2,012	78.20%	0	0.00%
1972	1,851	84.68%	335	15.32%	0	0.00%
1968	430	15.03%	475	16.61%	1,955	68.36%
1964	2,017	73.16%	740	26.84%	0	0.00%
1960	352	17.80%	1,625	82.20%	0	0.00%
1956	312	16.72%	1,554	83.28%	0	0.00%
1952	516	25.92%	1,475	74.08%	0	0.00%
1948	146	10.77%	946	69.82%	263	19.41%
1944	259	23.10%	862	76.90%	0	0.00%
1940	197	16.95%	962	82.79%	3	0.26%
1936	110	9.64%	1,025	89.83%	6	0.53%
1932	22	1.53%	1,416	98.40%	1	0.07%
1928	162	15.01%	917	84.99%	0	0.00%
1924	35	10.80%	268	82.72%	21	6.48%
1920	114	17.84%	525	82.16%	0	0.00%
1916	24	4.30%	503	90.14%	31	5.56%
1912	45	9.39%	428	89.35%	6	1.25%

See also

• State of Georgia portal

• National Register of Historic Places listings in Irwin County, Georgia
• List of counties in Georgia

References

1. "Census - Geography Profile: Irwin County, Georgia". United States Census Bureau . Retrieved December 27, 2022.
2. "Find a County". National Association of Counties. Archived from the original on May 31, 2011. Retrieved June 7, 2011.
3. Gannett, Henry (1905). The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States. Govt. Print. Off. pp.  166.
4. Wetherington, Mark V. (2005). Plain Folk's Fight: The Civil War and Reconstruction in Piney Woods Georgia. Chapel Hill, North Carolina: The University of North Carolina Press. pp. 239–241. ISBN   9780807877043.
5. "Georgia State Parks - Jefferson Davis Memorial Historic Site". Archived from the original on September 8, 2008.
6. Huxford, Folks (1978). The History of Brooks County 1858-1948. p. 10. ISBN   0871522845.
7. Williams, David; Williams, Teresa Crisp; Carlson, David (2002). Plain Folks in a Rich Man's War: Class and Dissent in Confederate Georgia. University Press of Florida. p. 171. ISBN   0813028361.
8. Williams, David; Williams, Teresa Crisp; Carlson, David (2002). Plain Folks in a Rich Man's War: Class and Dissent in Confederate Georgia. University Press of Florida. pp. 183–184. ISBN   0813028361.
9. "Disgraceful". Albany Patriot. Albany, Georgia. February 23, 1865. Retrieved September 2, 2016.
10. Clements, James Bagley. The History of Irwinville (PDF). pp. 133–138.
11. Clements, James Bagley. The History of Irwinville (PDF). pp. 138–141.
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. Retrieved November 27, 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 June 23, 2014.
24. "Explore Census Data". data.census.gov. Retrieved December 18, 2021.
25. Leip, David. "Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections". uselectionatlas.org. Retrieved March 20, 2018.

External links

• Dorminy's Meeting House historical marker
• Irwin County historical marker

31°36′N83°16′W / 31.60°N 83.27°W / 31.60; -83.27