Habersham County

We decided to travel 15 miles over to Habersham County today and we had no idea what or whom we were going to run into. Habersham County ranks 111th out of the 159 counties in Georgia with a population of 35,000 or so from the 2000 census. We stopped at the Habersham Chamber of Commerce and met Joy Lovell, an information guide there.

Clarkesville GA (pop. 1,300) is the county seat and the largest town in Habersham County. We were curious about the name, “Habersham,” and had no idea we would find out in spades. Joy Lovell is a veritable walking encyclopedia of Habershaam County who lives in the summer home built by Joseph Habersham(1751-1815) after whom the county is named. The home is reputedly the oldest one in Habersham County and is shown in one of the photos above(must have been renovated several times in the last 190 years).

Joy showed us an 1819 log cabin. In the photo she is talking with Lois on the front porch of the cabin. In the 1820’s the owner, according to Joy, was taken to Court because the cabin encroached on someone else’s property. The judge ruled appropriately and required the cabin to be dismantled and moved.

Back to Joseph Habersham, he was quite a character. He opposed his father who was a Tory Governor of the Georgia Colony. He was born in Savannah GA and spent his summers in later years in Habersham County. Here is a list of his accomplishments:

· Member of the General Assembly of the State of Georgia, serving twice as Speaker of the House

· Delegate to the Continental Congress (1785-1786)

· Member of the Convention which ratified the Federal Constitution (1788)

· Member of the city council of Savannah (1790-1791), during which he delivered an address of welcome to President George Washington during his visit to Savannah (1791)

· Mayor of Savannah (1792-1793)

· First federal Postmaster-General of the United States (appointed by President Washington) (1795-1801)

· After his retirement from politics, in 1802 the colonel became president of the Branch Bank of the United States in Savannah. He kept his position until his death on November 17, 1815.

The information above was taken from “The Hills of Habersham” by Mary L. Church, and “Men of Mark in Georgia” by William J. Northen.