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THE MORPHOLOGY OF THE PIEDMONT GEORGIA COUNTY SEAT BEFORE 1860 Richard Pillsbury The county seat was the most important type of urban center on the Georgia Piedmont before 1860. Although many writers on the American South have tended to discount the importance of the urban system to the region during this period, the presence of some fifty-one counties and their associated seats of government in such a restricted area clearly indicates the impact of this urban form within the region (Fig. 1). (1) The purpose of this study is to examine the physical characteristics of the region's county seats as a first step toward reconstructing the preCivil War Georgia Piedmont urban landscape. THE FOUNDING OF THE COUNTY SEATS. Georgia Piedmont county seats were typically founded in conjunction with the establishment of new counties by the state legislature. The naming, siting, and surveying of the new towns was normally left to the discretion of the Inferior Court, which was constituted of local citizens. Taverns, inns, and private homes were commonly used as sites for the courts and for other governmental functions until permanent seats were selected and appropriate buildings erected. The informal nature of site selection left much room for profiteering and error. An example of apparent profiteering may be noted in Troup County, where Lot 109 of the 6th Land District was selected as the site for the projected county seat of La Grange. (2) The lot was initially granted in the lottery of 1827. In May of that year it was sold for $200, a fair price for the period. Several additional transactions occurred, however, before the county bought the land in March of the following year, including a sale on February 15, 1828, for $300 and a February 26 transaction in which it was sold for $500. The county purchased the lot a week later for $1350. One can only speculate why the Court did not elect to change sites after viewing the alarming price increase of the lot in relation to similar nearby Dr. Pillsbury is Associate Professor of Geography and Acting Chairman of the Department of Geography, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA 30303. 116 Southeastern Geographer PIEDMONT COUNTY SEATS, I860 . Cornesville •Homer/•Hartwell "Gainesville \ / >\ Cumminq ¿sv*"^ ri¦ - ¦ ¦ \ ? / ^./ \ Uanielsville ? .L-,/ ^^/ .. „I · , .Elberton Clorkesville Alphareffa X 'Jefferson Lawrence ^ -Wotkinsville JacksonMoniicello •Eotonton Griffin , ? .Zebulon* \ Milledgeville Greenville«Forsyth\ · , , a •Clinton Thomas to ? Macon# rî\ Knoxville .. "·I .Lexington \ .lintolnfon ^ Monroe^' .Washington . .JÓnesbofo* ov'n.9,on .Modis°^Gxeenesboro.Applies. . Warrenton Figure 1. Piedmont County Seats, I860. property. Such blatant profiteering was not universal by any means, but it did occur under a variety of guises as the Courts selected suitable sites for the region's new county seats. The Court also occasionally changed its mind about the proper location of the county seat once a site was purchased. Although a variety of reasons brought about these alterations, the most common were associated with later changes in the county boundaries. For example, Newnan, the original seat of Pike County, was laid out at a site near the new county's geographic center. When Upson County was later formed from several counties including a portion of Pike County in 1825, many residents considered Newnan to be too far from the newly reformed county's center. A new site for the seat, named Zebulon, was later selected near the geographic center of the county's new boundaries . (3) The original town of Newnan disappeared, although the name was later used as that for the seat of adjacent Coweta County. Vol. XVIII, No. 2 117 The survey of the town's street plat on the land lot required careful planning by the Court. The important considerations were to locate a site which was on a pre-existing road, that had sufficient water sources (but was not boggy) , and included a location for the courthouse which would give it a commanding position in the town. The importance of the elevated site for significant buildings of the period is well-illustrated in a satirical early nineteenth century "advertisement" for Skunksburgh which first appeared in the Augusta (Ga) Chronicle. In describing the town site, the developers pointed out that the town was located on a...

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