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Taliaferro County, Georgia

Taliaferro County ( TOL-iv-ər) is a county located in East central Piedmont region of the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 1,559, down from the 2010 census when the population was 1,717, making it the least populous county in Georgia and the second least populous county east of the Mississippi River (after Issaquena County, Mississippi). The county seat is Crawfordville.

History

Taliaferro County was formed by an act of the Georgia Legislature meeting in Milledgeville on December 24, 1825. It was formed by taking portions of five other counties: Wilkes, Greene, Hancock, Oglethorpe, and Warren Counties.

The county was named for Colonel Benjamin Taliaferro of Virginia, who was an officer in the American Revolution.

The county is most famous for containing the birthplace and home of Alexander H. Stephens, who served as a U.S. congressman from Georgia in the antebellum South, as vice president of the Confederate States of America during the Civil War, and as governor of Georgia after the war (dying in office). A state park near his home in Crawfordville bears his name.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 195 square miles (510 km²), of which 195 square miles (510 km²) is land and 0.7 square miles (1.8 km²) (0.4%) is water. It is drained by tributaries of the Ogeechee and Little rivers.

The northern half of Taliaferro County, north of Crawfordville, is located in the Little River sub-basin of the Savannah River basin. The southern half of the county is located in the Upper Ogeechee River sub-basin of the Ogeechee River basin.

Major highways

Interstate 20
U.S. Route 278
State Route 12
State Route 22
State Route 44
State Route 47
State Route 402 (unsigned designation for I-20)

Adjacent counties

Wilkes County - Northeast
Oglethorpe County - northwest
Warren County - southeast
Hancock County - south
Greene County - west

Communities

Cities

Crawfordville (county seat)
Sharon

Demographics

As of the 2020 United States census, there were 1,559 people, 593 households, and 399 families residing in the county.

Economy

Taliaferro county's main employer is the government, primarily the Taliaferro County Sheriffs Department, which patrols I-20 and issues many traffic tickets per capita compared to other counties in the state. For instance, Fulton County, the largest county by population in Georgia, gains $16.98 per capita in traffic ticket revenue. By comparison, Taliaferro county gains $1,614.33 per capita, which is around a hundred times more.

In popular culture

Several Hollywood films have been shot in Taliaferro County. Paris Trout (1991), starring Dennis Hopper and based on the novel by the same name by Pete Dexter, was primarily filmed in the county. Sweet Home Alabama (2002), starring Reese Witherspoon, was filmed in the county seat of Crawfordville.

Politics

Taliaferro County is one of the most reliably Democratic counties in Georgia, despite being mostly rural in nature. It has supported the Democrat candidate in every presidential election by wide margins except in 1972, when Richard Nixon won by a landslide.