Harris County is a county located in the west-central portion of the U.S. state of Georgia; its western border is formed by the Chattahoochee River. As of the 2010 census, the population was 32,024. The county seat is Hamilton. The county was created on December 14, 1827, and named for Charles Harris, a Georgia judge and attorney.
Harris County is part of the Columbus, GA-AL Metropolitan Statistical Area. In the antebellum era, it was considered part of the Black Belt in the southern United States, an upland area developed for cotton plantations in the 19th century before the American Civil War. Muscogee County, to the south, was more heavily developed for cotton.
Video Harris County, Georgia
History
The county was settled by European Americans largely after the federal government had forcibly removed the indigenous Creek people (Muscogee), who 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 imported numerous slaves from the Upper South through the domestic slave trade as workers.
The County Courthouse was designed by Edward Columbus Hosford of Georgia and completed in 1906.
By the late 19th century, there were 200 years of families with many interconnections among them; justice was nearly always meted out to kin. The mountain areas of the county had moonshiners in the late 19th and early 20th centuries; both whites and blacks took part in this.
On January 22, 1912, a black woman and three black men were lynched in Hamilton, the county seat, allegedly for the murder of 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" and "notorious predator of black women."
Dusky Crutchfield was the first woman lynched in Georgia, and the lynching case attracted attention of national northern newspapers. Also murdered by the lynch mob were Eugene Harrington, Burrell Hardaway, and Johnie Moore. (Note: There was confusion about names of victims at the time, and variations have been published.)
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; Norman Hadley was the sheriff's nephew.
The county is now part of the Columbus, Georgia, metropolitan area, which has become industrialized and developed a more varied economy. By per capita income, the county is the sixth-wealthiest in Georgia, and the wealthiest county in the state outside of Metro Atlanta.
Maps Harris County, Georgia
Geography
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.
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.
Major highways
Adjacent counties
- Troup County (north)
- Meriwether County (northeast)
- Talbot County (east)
- Muscogee County (south)
- Lee County, Alabama (southwest/CST Border)
- Chambers County, Alabama (northwest/CST Border except Lanett and Valley as the cities are jointed by the Columbus Metropolitan Area)
Demographics
As of the 2010 United States Census, there were 32,024 people, 11,823 households, and 9,268 families residing in the county. The population density was 69.0 inhabitants per square mile (26.6/km2). There were 13,397 housing units at an average density of 28.9 per square mile (11.2/km2). The racial makeup of the county was 79.3% white, 17.2% black or African American, 0.9% Asian, 0.3% American Indian, 0.1% Pacific islander, 0.7% from other races, and 1.5% from two or more races. Those of Hispanic or Latino origin made up 2.7% of the population. In terms of ancestry, 17.2% identified as having African ancestry; 13.5% were German, 13.4% were Irish, 11.5% were English, and 10.5% identified as having American ancestry.
Of the 11,823 households, 35.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 64.0% were married couples living together, 10.3% had a female householder with no husband present, 21.6% were non-families, and 18.5% of all households were made up of individuals. The average household size was 2.67 and the average family size was 3.04. The median age was 42.0 years.
The median income for a household in the county was $67,018 and the median income for a family was $74,457. Males had a median income of $49,844 versus $37,103 for females. The per capita income for the county was $31,073. About 6.0% of families and 9.0% of the population were below the poverty line, including 9.3% of those under age 18 and 10.5% of those age 65 or over.
Communities
Cities
- Hamilton - county seat
- Shiloh
- West Point (part, most of city is in Troup County)
Towns
- Pine Mountain
- Waverly Hall
Unincorporated communities
Politics
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. The district headquarters is located in Hamilton, and has 274 full-time teachers and over 4,411 students spread out over seven schools.
- Mulberry Creek Elementary School (Cataula)
- New Mountain Hill Elementary School (Fortson)
- Park Elementary School (Hamilton)
- Pine Ridge Elementary School (Ellerslie)
- Creekside Intermediate School (grades 5-6) (Cataula)
- Harris County Carver Middle School (Hamilton)
- Harris County High School (Hamilton)
Notable people
- Georgia Militia Colonel Reuben J. Crews, father of C.C. Crews
- Benjamin Franklin White, clerk of the Inferior Court of Harris County, and mayor of Whitesville, Georgia, compiler of the shape note songbook known as The Sacred Harp
See also
- National Register of Historic Places listings in Harris County, Georgia
- USNS Harris County (T-LST-822)
References
External links
- Columbus Enquirer Archive Digital Library of Georgia
- Harris County historical marker
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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