CLINCH COUNTY, GEORGIA
HISTORY

The following is a verbatim copy of the act creating Clinch County. Since then, several other laws have been passed which affect the boundary line of the county, notably the creation of Coffee and Echols Counties:

"An Act to lay out and form a new county from the counties of Ware and Lowndes and to provide for the organization of the same.

"Section 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Georgia in General Assembly met, and it is hereby enacted by authority of the same, that there shall be a new county laid out and formed from the counties of Ware and Lowndes, to be bounded as follows: commencing at the mouth of Cane Creek where it empties into the Okefinokee Swamp, thence along said creek to the ford at Daniel Lane's, thence a direct line to the mouth of Reedy Creek where it empties into the Satilla River near John B. Wall's, then the river to be the line up to the county line, thence the county line to the Allapaha River, thence the river to be the line to the Florida line, to the Okefinokee Swamp; the territory thus included shall form a new county to be called the County of Clinch.

"Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, that Elijah Mattox, Simon W. Nichols, Timothy Kirkland, Benjamin Sirmans and John J. Johnson be and they are hereby appointed commissioners, with authority, at the expense of the new county hereby laid out, to employ a suitable person to run and distinctly mark the lines thereof that are not designated in this Act, and they shall further be authorized and empowered to fix upon the site for the public buildings, which shall be as near the center of the county as is convenient or practicable; and until there is a court-house built the Superior and Inferior Courts, and Court of Ordinary shall be held at the house of Jonathan Knight.

"Sec. 3. And be it further enacted, That the commissioners herein before named, shall have power and authority to purchase and receive titles to a suitable tract or parcel of land for the site of the public buildings, to lay out a town which shall be called Polk, and to sell and dispose of such number of lots upon such terms as they may think proper for county purposes; provided, nevertheless, the Inferior Court of said county shall have the power and be authorized to do and perform all and every duty hereby required of the commissioners which may not have been performed previous to the time that said court are commissioned and qualified.

"Sec. 4. And be it further enacted. That all officers, both civil and military, which may be included within the limits of the said new county, shall continue to hold their offices respectively as if commissioned as officers hereof; and said county shall form a part of the First Congressional District, and a part of the fifth Senatorial District and shall be attached to the Southern Circuit, and to the second Brigade of the Sixth Division, G. M.

"Sec. 5. And be it further enacted. That an election shall be held on the first Monday in April, next, at the house of Jonathan Knight, and at the different election precincts that are established by law which may be included within the limits of the said new county, for five justices of the Inferior Court, clerk of the Superior and Inferior Courts, a tax receiver and collector, coroner and sheriff and a county surveyor.

"Sec. 6. And be it further enacted. That the justices of the Inferior Court as soon as convenient after they have been elected and qualified, shall meet at the house of the said Jonathan Knight and from the best information they may be able to procure, make a selection of grand and petit jurors, and proceed to the drawing thereof as pointed out by law, for the ensuing Superior and Inferior Courts.

"Sec. 7. And be it further enacted, That all actions now pending in either of the counties from which said new county is now taken wherein the defendant or defendants may now be included in said county, shall be transferred with all papers relating thereto and the trial in said new county where the defendant resides.

"Sec. 8. And be it further enacted, by the authority aforesaid, That all laws and parts of laws militating against this Act, be and the same are hereby repealed.

"Approved, February 14th, 1850."


Source: History of Clinch County Georgia, Compiled and Edited by Folks Huxford, The J. W. Burke Company, Macon, Georgia, 1916

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