Harris County, Georgia

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Not to be confused with Harris City, Georgia.

Template:Infobox U.S. county Harris County is a county located in the west-central portion of the U.S. state of Georgia; its western border with the state of Alabama is formed by the Chattahoochee River. As of the 2020 census, the population was 34,668.[1] The county seat is Hamilton.[2] The largest city in the county is Pine Mountain, a resort town that is home to the Franklin D. Roosevelt State Park (the largest state park in Georgia). Harris County was created on December 14, 1827, and named for Charles Harris, a Georgia judge and attorney.[3] Harris County is part of the Columbus, GA-AL metropolitan area and has become a popular suburban and exurban destination of residence for families relocating from Columbus. Because of this, Harris has become the sixth-wealthiest county in Georgia in terms of per capita income and the third-wealthiest in the state outside of Metro Atlanta.

History

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The county was settled by European Americans largely after the federal government had removed the indigenous Creek people (Muscogee) in the 1830s, under treaties by which they ceded most of their homelands to the United States. They 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 acquired numerous enslaved African Americans as laborers from the Upper South through the domestic slave trade.

The County Courthouse was designed by Edward Columbus Hosford of Georgia and completed in 1906.

Moonshiners were active in the mountain areas of the county in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Both whites and blacks took part in this, and were common drinking patrons.[4]

Lynchings

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On January 22, 1912, a black woman and three black men were lynched in Hamilton, the county seat, for the alleged murder of young 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"[5] and "notorious predator of black women."[6]

Of this group, Dusky Crutchfield was the first woman lynched in Georgia.[5] The lynching case attracted attention of national northern newspapers.[7][8] Also murdered by the lynch mob were Eugene Harrington, Burrell Hardaway,[9] and Johnie Moore. (Note: There was confusion about the names of victims at the time, and variations in spelling have been published.)[4]

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; and Norman Hadley was the sheriff's nephew.[5][4][9]

In 1947, prosperous farmer Henry "Peg" Gilbert, a married African-American man who owned and farmed 100 acres in Troup County, was arrested by officials from neighboring Harris County and charged with harboring a fugitive. The 47-year-old father was accused in the case of Gus Davidson, an African-American man accused of fatally shooting a white man in Harris County and who had disappeared. Four days later Gilbert was dead, shot while held in jail by the Harris County Sheriff, who said it was self-defense. No charges were filed against him.

In 2016 the Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project of Northeastern University reported on Gilbert's death in custody. They had found that Henry Gilbert had been beaten severely before his death, and shot five times. They asserted he had been detained and killed because whites resented his success as a farmer.[10][11] Economic issues and competition were often at the bottom of lynchings. A white man took over Gilbert's land, cheating his family out of everything he had built.

Geography

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File:Harris county view 2.JPG
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) are land and 9.1 square miles (24 km2) (1.9%) are covered by water.[12]

The county is located in the Piedmont region of the state, with forests, farmland, and rolling hills covering much of the county. The Pine Mountain Range begins in the county, and runs across the northernmost parts of the county, with the highest point on the range found at Dowdell's Knob near the Meriwether County line.

The majority of Harris County is located in the middle Chattahoochee River–Lake Harding subbasin 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 subbasin of the same ACF River Basin as that part of the county is drained by Bull Creek, which flows into Upatoi Creek south of Columbus.[13]

Lake Harding and Goat Rock Lake both form much of the county's western border along the Chattahoochee, and both are very popular recreational destinations, especially for metro Columbus residents.

Major highways

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Adjacent counties

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Communities

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Cities

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Towns

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Census-designated places

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Unincorporated communities

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Demographics

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Template:US Census population

Racial and ethnic composition

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Harris County, Georgia – Racial and ethnic composition
Note: the US Census treats Hispanic/Latino as an ethnic category. This table excludes Latinos from the racial categories and assigns them to a separate category. Hispanics/Latinos may be of any race.
Race / Ethnicity (NH = Non-Hispanic) Pop 1980[14] Pop 1990[15] Pop 2000[16] Pop 2010[17] Pop 2020[18] % 1980 % 1990 % 2000 % 2010 % 2020
White alone (NH) 10,010 13,041 18,444 24,848 25,925 64.73% 73.31% 77.84% 77.59% 74.78%
Black or African American alone (NH) 5,215 4,559 4,597 5,457 5,170 33.72% 25.63% 19.40% 17.04% 14.91%
Native American or Alaska Native alone (NH) 26 52 82 100 101 0.17% 0.29% 0.35% 0.31% 0.29%
Asian alone (NH) 33 39 118 280 388 0.21% 0.22% 0.50% 0.87% 1.12%
Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander alone (NH) x [19] x [20] 4 17 21 x x 0.02% 0.05% 0.06%
Other race alone (NH) 8 0 5 45 138 0.05% 0.00% 0.02% 0.14% 0.40%
Mixed race or Multiracial (NH) x [21] x [22] 185 405 1,508 x x 0.78% 1.26% 4.35%
Hispanic or Latino (any race) 172 97 260 872 1,417 1.11% 0.55% 1.10% 2.72% 4.09%
Total 15,464 17,788 23,695 32,024 34,668 100.00% 100.00% 100.00% 100.00% 100.00%

2020 census

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As of the 2020 census, the county had a population of 34,668 and 9,581 families residing in the county.[23][24]

The median age was 43.7 years, 22.7% of residents were under the age of 18, and 18.7% of residents were 65 years of age or older. For every 100 females there were 99.6 males, and for every 100 females age 18 and over there were 97.2 males age 18 and over. 2.8% of residents lived in urban areas, while 97.2% lived in rural areas.[23][24]

The racial makeup of the county was 76.0% White, 15.1% Black or African American, 0.4% American Indian and Alaska Native, 1.1% Asian, 0.1% Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander, 1.4% from some other race, and 5.9% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino residents of any race comprised 4.1% of the population.[25]

There were 12,770 households in the county, of which 33.2% had children under the age of 18 living with them and 19.0% had a female householder with no spouse or partner present. About 19.1% of all households were made up of individuals and 9.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.[24]

There were 14,212 housing units, of which 10.1% were vacant. Among occupied housing units, 87.2% were owner-occupied and 12.8% were renter-occupied. The homeowner vacancy rate was 1.1% and the rental vacancy rate was 9.2%.[24]

Politics

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As of the 2020s, Harris County is a strongly Republican voting county, voting 72% for Donald Trump in 2024. Like all of Georgia except the Unionist Fannin, Towns, Pickens and Gilmer counties, which were in the upland region and could not support plantations, Harris County was historically dominated by a majority of conservative white voters after the Civil War. They belonged to the Democratic Party. From the end of Reconstruction to 1980, they supported Republican presidential candidates only twice, in 1964 (when Barry Goldwater carried the state in a landslide) and 1972 (during Richard Nixon's national landslide).

But the passage of civil rights legislation by the national Democratic Party and social and cultural disruption of the era resulted in white conservatives beginning to support the Republican Party. In 1984, the state swung from having given a 16.8 percent victory to the 'favorite son' of Georgia, Jimmy Carter, in 1976, to a nearly 20-point victory for Ronald Reagan in his second term. In this, it was part of the realignment of white conservatives across the South. Since then, these voters in Harris County have voted for Republican presidential candidates. 1984 is the last time that a Democrat gained more than 40 percent of the vote. This trend has been attributed to the effect of Columbus's suburbs extending into the county, but it is part of the broader realignment among conservatives in the region.

For elections to the United States House of Representatives, Harris County is part of Georgia's 3rd congressional district, currently represented by Brian Jack. For elections to the Georgia State Senate, Harris County is part of District 29.[26] For elections to the Georgia House of Representatives, Harris County is part of district 138 and 139.[27]

United States presidential election results for Harris County, Georgia[28]
Year Republican Democratic Third party
No.  % No.  % No.  %
1912 28 4.54% 585 94.81% 4 0.65%
1916 31 5.13% 550 91.06% 23 3.81%
1920 9 2.21% 398 97.79% 0 0.00%
1924 20 3.87% 457 88.39% 40 7.74%
1928 144 20.72% 551 79.28% 0 0.00%
1932 21 2.40% 851 97.26% 3 0.34%
1936 54 5.36% 953 94.54% 1 0.10%
1940 71 7.15% 914 92.04% 8 0.81%
1944 79 8.13% 893 91.87% 0 0.00%
1948 138 12.14% 759 66.75% 240 21.11%
1952 544 28.36% 1,374 71.64% 0 0.00%
1956 563 29.79% 1,327 70.21% 0 0.00%
1960 735 35.05% 1,362 64.95% 0 0.00%
1964 2,166 69.74% 940 30.26% 0 0.00%
"text-align:center;" Template:Party shading/American Independent |1968 1,021 25.89% 1,072 27.18% 1,851 46.93%
1972 2,617 78.87% 701 21.13% 0 0.00%
1976 1,544 35.05% 2,861 64.95% 0 0.00%
1980 2,001 40.49% 2,807 56.80% 134 2.71%
1984 3,138 59.95% 2,096 40.05% 0 0.00%
1988 3,414 63.94% 1,905 35.68% 20 0.37%
1992 3,316 47.64% 2,679 38.49% 965 13.86%
1996 3,829 53.70% 2,779 38.97% 523 7.33%
2000 5,554 64.87% 2,912 34.01% 96 1.12%
2004 8,878 71.82% 3,400 27.50% 84 0.68%
2008 10,648 71.25% 4,184 28.00% 113 0.76%
2012 11,197 72.14% 4,145 26.71% 179 1.15%
2016 11,936 72.33% 4,086 24.76% 480 2.91%
2020 14,319 71.59% 5,457 27.28% 226 1.13%
2024 16,283 72.84% 5,976 26.73% 94 0.42%
2016 1 33.33% 1 33.33% 1 33.33%


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Education

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The Harris County School District holds preschool to grade 12 and consists of four elementary schools, an intermediate school, a middle school, and a high school.[29] The district headquarters is located in Hamilton, and has 274 full-time teachers and over 4,411 students spread out over seven schools.[30]

Notable people

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See also

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References

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  1. ↑ "Census - Geography Profile: Harris County, Georgia". United States Census Bureau. Retrieved December 27, 2022.
  2. ↑ "Find a County". National Association of Counties. Retrieved June 7, 2011.
  3. ↑ Gannett, Henry (1905). The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States. Govt. Print. Off. pp. 150.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Karen Branan, The Family Tree: A Lynching in Georgia, a Legacy of Secrets, and My Search for the Truth, Atria Books, 2016.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Jeff Calder, " 'Family Tree’ unpacks mystery of a 1912 Georgia lynching", Books & Literature, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, January 9, 2016, accessed April 6, 2016.
  6. ↑ Karen Branan, "Getting to the Roots of My Family Tree", Coming to the Table, 2014, accessed April 6, 2016.
  7. ↑ "Woman and 3 Men Lynched by Mob", Chicago Daily Tribune, January 23, 1912, accessed April 6, 2016.
  8. ↑ (Associated Press), "Three Colored Men and Woman Lynched", VALLEY SENTINEL (Carlisle, Pennsylvania), January 26, 1912, accessed April 6, 2016.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 "Burrell Hardaway" Archived April 17, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, Georgia Lynching Project Circa 1875-1930, Project of Emory University, 2016, accessed April 6, 2016.
  10. ↑ CRRJ Provides First Full Account of Notorious 1947 Georgia Jailhouse Killing, Civil Rights Restorative Justice Project, August 22, 2016, archived from the original on August 26, 2016, retrieved August 25, 2016
  11. ↑ Dunn, Tara; Kong, Ariel Goeun Lee (2016). Henry Gilbert. Northeastern University School of Law (Report). Boston, MA: Civil Rights Restorative Justice Project. Archived from the original on August 26, 2016. Retrieved August 25, 2016.
  12. ↑ "US Gazetteer files: 2010, 2000, and 1990". United States Census Bureau. February 12, 2011. Retrieved April 23, 2011.
  13. ↑ "Georgia Soil and Water Conservation Commission Interactive Mapping Experience". Georgia Soil and Water Conservation Commission. Archived from the original on October 3, 2018. Retrieved November 20, 2015.
  14. ↑ "1980 Census of Population - General Social and Economic Characteristics - Georgia - Table 58 - Race by Sex: 1980 and Table 59 - Persons by Spanish Origin, Race, and Sex: 1980" (PDF). United States Census Bureau. p. 12-52. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 18, 2026 – via Wayback Machine.
  15. ↑ "1990 Census of Population - General Population Characteristics - Georgia: Table 6 - Race and Hispanic Origin" (PDF). United States Census Bureau. p. 15-65. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 1, 2025 – via Wayback Machine.
  16. ↑ "P004: Hispanic or Latino, and Not Hispanic or Latino by Race – 2000: DEC Summary File 1 – Harris County, Georgia". United States Census Bureau.
  17. ↑ "P2: Hispanic or Latino, and Not Hispanic or Latino by Race – 2010: DEC Redistricting Data (PL 94-171) – Harris County, Georgia". United States Census Bureau.
  18. ↑ "P2: Hispanic or Latino, and Not Hispanic or Latino by Race – 2020: DEC Redistricting Data (PL 94-171) – Harris County, Georgia". United States Census Bureau.
  19. ↑ included in the Asian category in the 1980 Census
  20. ↑ included in the Asian category in the 1990 Census
  21. ↑ not an option in the 1980 Census
  22. ↑ not an option in the 1990 Census
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 "2020 Decennial Census Demographic and Housing Characteristics (DHC)". United States Census Bureau. 2023. Retrieved 13 December 2025.
  24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 24.2 24.3 "2020 Decennial Census Demographic Profile (DP1)". United States Census Bureau. 2021. Retrieved 13 December 2025.
  25. ↑ "2020 Decennial Census Redistricting Data (Public Law 94-171)". United States Census Bureau. 2021. Retrieved 13 December 2025.
  26. ↑ "Georgia General Assembly". www.legis.ga.gov. Retrieved November 28, 2025.
  27. ↑ "Georgia General Assembly". www.legis.ga.gov. Retrieved November 28, 2025.
  28. ↑ Leip, David. "Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections". uselectionatlas.org. Retrieved March 20, 2018.
  29. ↑ Georgia Board of Education[permanent dead link], Retrieved June 19, 2010.
  30. ↑ School Stats, Retrieved June 19, 2010.
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Template:Geographic Location Template:Harris County, Georgia Template:Columbus Auburn Opelika Template:Georgia (U.S. state) Coordinates: 32°44′N 84°55′W / 32.74°N 84.91°W / 32.74; -84.91

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