Atkinson County, Georgia

Atkinson County History, Geography, Demographics, Cities and Towns, and Education

County Seat: Pearson
Year Organized: 1919
Square Miles: 338

Court House:

P.O. Box 518
County Courthouse
Pearson, GA 31642-0518

Etymology - Origin of County Name

The county is named for William Yates Atkinson, who served as Governor and Speaker of the Georgia House of Representatives.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

History

The county is named for William Yates Atkinson, who served as Governor and Speaker of the Georgia House of Representatives.

Willacoochee is home to McCraine's Turpentine Still, a preserved wood-burning turpentine still of 19th-century design that operated from 1936 to 1942.

Atkinson County, created from Clinch and Coffee counties, has a county courthouse that was constructed in 1921.

Pearson, was named to honor Benjah Pearson who served in the Indian War of 1838.

Points of Interest

The Minnie F. Corbitt Memorial Museum was established in 1955 in the first residence built in Pearson (1873). It is dedicated to the memory of South Georgia pioneers and their way of life.

The city of Willacoochee is home of the "No Name Bar," fondly referred to by the late Lewis Grizzard in many of his columns.

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Pearson was known as the "Chess Capital" of the state. The town hosted four consecutive championships, and Pearson residents made up one-fourth of the membership of the Georgia Chess Association.

Neighboring Counties:

North: Coffee County
Southeast: Ware County; Clinch County
Southwest: Lanier County
West: Berrien County

Cities and Towns:

- Pearson (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area
- Willacoochee	city	Incorporated Area

County Resources:

Additional County Info http://www.georgiaplanning.com/CountyPortal/countyportal.asp?FIPS=13003

County Resource Guide

Counties: US Map

The history of our nation can be seen as a prolonged struggle to define the relative roles and powers of our governments: federal, state, and local. And the names we've given our counties, our most locally based jurisdictions, reflects the "characteristic features of our country!"

But age, size and colorful names of our counties isn't the only reason to explore counties' role in American history, or the history of county government itself. In fact, the story of county government reflects the larger meanings of American history.

Today's counties are the most flexible, locally responsive and creative governments in the US. They are the most diverse, varying in size, population, geography, and governmental structure. In their politics and policies, they express a 1990's political slogan "Think globally, act locally."

Penn Foster High School

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