Harris County, Georgia

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Harris County, Georgia
County courthouse in Hamilton
Location in the state of Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia's location in the U.S.
Founded	December 14, 1827
Named for	Charles Harris
Seat	Hamilton
Largest city	West Point
Area  - Total  - Land  - Water	473 sq mi (1,225 km²) 464 sq mi (1,202 km²) 9.1 sq mi (24 km²), 1.9%
Population  - (2010)  - Density	32,024 69/sq mi (27/km²)
Congressional district	3rd
Time zone	Eastern: UTC-5/-4
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 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 nineteenth century before the American Civil War. Muscogee County, to the south, was more heavily developed for cotton.

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 had been numerous interracial relationships between whites and blacks both before and after the war; many residents were of mixed race, typically with European ancestry through the paternal line. There were 200 years of families with many inter-connections among them; justice was nearly always meted out to kin. Periodically some of the whites would try to reduce the relations of white men with mixed-race and black women, a movement that started in the late 19th century. 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 the state of Georgia, and the wealthiest county in the state outside of Metro Atlanta.

Geography

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) is land and 9.1 square miles (24 km²) (1.9%) is water.

The majority of Harris County is located in the Middle Chattahoochee River-Lake Harding sub-basin 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 sub-basin of the same ACF River Basin.

Major highways

• Interstate 85
• Interstate 185
• U.S. Route 27
• 
  U.S. Route 27 Alternate
• State Route 1
• State Route 18
• State Route 36
• State Route 85
• State Route 85 Alternate
• State Route 103
• State Route 116
• State Route 190
• State Route 208
• State Route 219
• State Route 315
• State Route 354
• State Route 403 (unsigned designation for I-85)
• State Route 411 (unsigned designation for I-185)

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

Historical populations
Census	Pop.		%±
1830	5,105		—
1840	13,933		172.9%
1850	14,721		5.7%
1860	13,736		−6.7%
1870	13,284		−3.3%
1880	15,758		18.6%
1890	16,797		6.6%
1900	18,009		7.2%
1910	17,886		−0.7%
1920	15,775		−11.8%
1930	11,140		−29.4%
1940	11,428		2.6%
1950	11,265		−1.4%
1960	11,167		−0.9%
1970	11,520		3.2%
1980	15,464		34.2%
1990	17,788		15.0%
2000	23,695		33.2%
2010	32,024		35.2%
Est. 2016	33,652		42.0%
U.S. Decennial Census 1790-1960 1900-1990 1990-2000 2010-2013

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 (in US history this has often also meant distant European 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

Towns

• Pine Mountain
• Waverly Hall

Unincorporated communities

• Cataula
• Ellerslie
• Fortson
• Midland
• Mountain Hill
• Pine Mountain Valley
• Piney Grove
• Rehobeth
• Ridgeway
• Whitesville

Politics

Previous Presidential Elections Results

Year	Republican	Democratic	Third Parties
2016	72.3% 11,936	24.8% 4,086	2.9% 480
2012	72.1% 11,197	26.7% 4,145	1.2% 179
2008	71.3% 10,648	28.0% 4,184	0.8% 113
2004	71.8% 8,878	27.5% 3,400	0.7% 84
2000	64.9% 5,554	34.0% 2,912	1.1% 96
1996	53.7% 3,829	39.0% 2,779	7.3% 523
1992	47.6% 3,316	38.5% 2,679	13.9% 965
1988	63.9% 3,414	35.7% 1,905	0.4% 20
1984	60.0% 3,138	40.1% 2,096
1980	40.5% 2,001	56.8% 2,807	2.7% 134
1976	35.1% 1,544	65.0% 2,861
1972	78.9% 2,617	21.1% 701
1968	25.9% 1,021	27.2% 1072	46.9% 1,851
1964	69.7% 2,166	30.3% 940
1960	35.1% 735	65.0% 1,362
1956	29.8% 563	70.2% 1,327
1952	28.4% 544	71.6% 1,374
1948	20.9% 238	66.8% 759	12.3% 140
1944	8.1% 79	91.9% 893
1940	7.2% 71	92.0% 914	0.8% 8
1936	5.4% 54	94.5% 953	0.1% 1
1932	2.4% 21	97.3% 851	0.3% 3
1928	20.7% 144	79.3% 551
1924	3.9% 20	88.4% 457	7.7% 40
1920	2.2% 9	97.8% 398
1916	5.1% 31	91.1% 550	3.8% 23
1912	4.5% 28	94.8% 585	0.7% 4

Education

The Harris County School District holds pre-school to grade twelve, 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)

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Harris County, Georgia

• Columbus Enquirer Archive Digital Library of Georgia
• Harris County historical marker