About Jefferson County

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Right place. Right time. Right choice.                                                                                                                                          

The Development Authority of Jefferson County is pleased to welcome you to the thriving center for business activity and growth that is Jefferson County, Georgia.  As you will learn from the information contained in this Community Profile, our Classic City is not only one of the prime locations for business and industry in eastern central Georgia but the Southeastern United States as well.  It is also rich in history and culture.  You are cordially invited to visit us in Jefferson County and experience Southern hospitality first-hand.  In the event you have questions or would like additional information, please contact us at the Development Authority of Jefferson County at (478) 625-8134 or by email to gsellars@jeffersoncounty.org.

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Jefferson County is part of the Augusta, Georgia metropolitan area and is home to six beautiful and historic municipalities including Louisville (County Seat), Wrens, Wadley, Bartow, Avera, and Stapleton.  International national, regional, and local business and industry have found Jefferson county to be a relaxed and comfortable place to do business.  Named after Thomas Jefferson, Jefferson County played a pivotal role in Georgia state history and United States Constitutional legal history.  On February 20, 1796, Jefferson County was created with the appropriation of 532 acres.  At that time, the state capitol was moved to Louisville and named in honor of King Louis XVI of France.

Louisville was chartered in 1786 and named after King Louis XVI in appreciation for the help he gave the colonies during the American Revolution.  Louisville is modeled after Philadelphia's grid plans of squares and streets.  From 1796 to 1807, Louisville served as the first permanent capitol of Georgia and is currently the county seat of Jefferson County.  The present county courthouse is built on the site of the old state Capitol and is identifiable by a metal marker fastened to the face of granite marker on site.  Prior to this time, colonists on the coast desired and sought a location on higher ground “with good drinking water.”  The famous Constitutional Convention of 1798 was held in Louisville and the document adopted then lasted for seventy years.  Georgia’s Great Seal, still in use, was adopted here in 1799.  Governors who served here were Jared Irwin, James Jackson, David Emanuel, Josiah Tattnall, and John Milledge.

The Market House, located in downtown Louisville, was originally built in 1795-1798 as a publicly owned multi-purpose trading house.  Louisville newspapers record sales of large tracts, household goods, town lots, and slaves by sheriffs, tax collectors, marshals, and people of the community at the Market House.  This square became the hub of the transportation routes that centered on Louisville when the State Capitol was located here (1794-1807).  Although portions of the structure have been replaced, the Market House has never lost its distinctive style.  Inside the Market House hangs a bell that was cast in France for a New Orleans Convent in 1772.  Pirates sacked the ship carrying the bell and the bell was sold in Savannah.  It was given to the State Capitol but was used in the Market House as a community warning signal (of Indian Raids).

The Market House is the only structure remaining in Louisville that dates from the 18th century.  Originally located at the crossroads of two trails, it continues to be a symbol of Georgia's colonial history.  Other historically significant events to take place in Louisville during this period include the burning of the Yazoo Fraud Papers, which established the course of constitutional law for the next 200 years, the 1799 adoption of Georgia's Great Seal, still in use today, and the chartering of the University of Georgia.  During the Civil War, a company of General Sherman's troops targeted Louisville on their March to the Sea Campaign.  Louisville hosts two sites on the Civil War Trail, commemorating the crossing of the Ogeechee River on a corduroy bridge and the burning of Broad Street on the whim of an individual soldier. 

Yazoo Fraud:  The notorious Yazoo Fraud Act was passed and later repealed in the Old State Capitol that stood here from 1794-1804.  The 1794 Georgia Legislature sold 53,000 acres of land along the Yazoo River in what is now Alabama and Mississippi at 11 cents per acre.  James Jackson resigned as United States Senator to run for the Georgia Legislature and urged repeal of the Yazoo Act.  He succeeded in 1796.  The act itself and all records of it were burned on the grounds here “with fire from heaven” aided by a sunglass.  The U. S. Supreme Court upheld the land sales.  Congress paid Georgia $1,250,000 for the Yazoo territory (1802), then paid the land buyers $4,000,000 (1810).  The land went into the new states of Alabama and Mississippi.

Thomas Jefferson was still fifteen years away from his Presidency, but as the primary author of the Declaration of Independence he’d already earned the respect of the freedom-loving settlers here who recognized his greatness by naming the county in his honor in 1796.  More great ideas and great people would roll out of Jefferson—the right ideas at the right time—changing the world and the course of history.  It was Bartow native Roy Evans’ American Bantam Car Company which in 1940 designed and produced the world’s first jeep, the vitally important “workhorse” that put Allies’ war effort into overdrive.

Jefferson County natives also embrace famous creations of our hard-at-work, happy-at-work folk artists.  Their work(s) grace museums and prominent collections across the nation. Here, creators find an environment that facilitates excellence—and that includes job creators ready to cruise to productivity.  Low costs and low stress meet high quality in warm, friendly communities and K-12 schools where educational leadership has earned recognition as the best in the nation by USA Today. Across a half-dozen inviting small cities, Jefferson offers a superb quality of life simply unavailable elsewhere.

Jefferson County puts your family and your business operation an enviable position, leveraging low costs and inviting small town advantages with easy access to cosmopolitan amenities and a robust labor pool and with the logistics—including deep-water port access just over two hours away—to reach domestic and global markets. Great for families, great for business, great ideas for the future: Success and personal satisfaction perfectly synced. Jefferson County is the right place, and there’s never been a better time.