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Athens-Clarke
County,
Georgia
A
Proud
Member
of
the
Genealogy
Trails
Group
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Hello and welcome to the
Genealogy Trails website for Athens-Clarke County, Georgia.
This County is available for
adoption.
Our goal at Genealogy Trails is to help you track your ancestors
through time and place by transcribing genealogical and historical data
and placing it online for the free use of all researchers.
This is a
continuation of our original Illinois Genealogy Trails History and
Genealogy Project and we are excited about this opportunity to expand
into other states. We welcome your feedback and comments, and your data
contributions. If you have data that you would like to have posted on
this website, please contact us.
Any data we come across will be added to this
site, and we do regret that we are unable to perform any personal research for you.
If
you
would
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kept
informed
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our state and county website
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Clarke County was created in 1801 by an act of the Georgia General
Assembly on December 5. The county was named after Revolutionary War
hero Elijah Clarke and included 250 square miles of land that was
originally part of Jackson County.
Clarke was most recognized for being credited with the 1779 victory at
the Battle of Kettle Creek in Wilkes County. The Elijah Clarke Chapter
of the Daughters of the American Revolution erected a monument in his
name in the middle of Broad Street in Athens that still stands today.
The city of Athens began as a tiny settlement and trading post that
emerged at Cedar Shoals, where an ancient Cherokee trail crossed the
Oconee River. On January 27, 1785, the Georgia General Assembly created
the University of Georgia as the first chartered state-supported
university in the United States. It was not until the summer of 1801,
though, that five men traveled to the area to look for an appropriate
site for the University. One member of the delegation, John Milledge,
purchased 633 acres on the hill above Cedar Shoals and donated it to
the University. He renamed the area Athens in honor of the Classical
Greek center of culture.
The original Clarke County
Commission had selected Watkinsville, now in Oconee County, as the
county seat. All county offices and county business, including the
courts and jail, later moved north to Athens when the seat was moved on
November 24, 1871. The state
legislature created Oconee County from the southwest section of Clarke
County and named Watkinsville as its seat. Oconee gained one-third of
Clarke's population and three-fifths of its land.
Cities and towns
Athens --- Winterville --- Bogart
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