Crawford County, Georgia

Crawford County, Georgia
Crawford County Courthouse in Knoxville
Location in the U.S. state of Georgia
Georgia's location in the U.S.
Founded	1822
Named for	William H. Crawford
Seat	Knoxville
Largest city	Roberta
Area
• Total	326 sq mi (844 km2)
• Land	325 sq mi (842 km2)
• Water	1.6 sq mi (4 km2), 0.5%
Population
• (2010)	12,630
• Density	39/sq mi (15/km²)
Congressional district	2nd
Time zone	Eastern: UTC-5/-4

Crawford County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2010 census, the population was 12,630. The county seat is Knoxville.

Crawford County is included in the Macon, GA Metropolitan Statistical Area.

Crawford County, in west central Georgia, is Georgia's fifty-seventh county. The 325-square-mile (840 km²) county was created on December 9, 1822, from Houston County, which had been formed from land given up by the Creek Indians in the 1821 Treaty of Indian Springs. The county is named for statesman William H. Crawford who had served as a U.S. senator, minister to France, and secretary of the treasury. Harris was Georgia's first presidential candidate.

The first white settlers in the area were Indian agent Benjamin Hawkins. Arriving in 1803, he developed a five-square-mile compound on the Flint River, with slave labor. The compound included a shop and plantation, which became known as the Creek Agency Reserve. Although Hawkins was well liked by the Creeks, he believed, as did many white men of his time, that the Indians should embrace a European-American way of life. His efforts to persuade the Creeks, however, were largely unsuccessful. Hawkins died at the reserve in 1816. David B Mitchell was appointed in 1817 to replace the deceased Hawkins.

Knoxville, Georgia was established on the Federal Road, the main stagecoach route from Washington, D.C., to New Orleans, making the town a natural choice for county seat. Although the chief center of population is now Roberta, a mile to its west, Knoxville (no longer an incorporated city) retains its designation as the county seat. The current courthouse, built there in 2002, replaced one built in 1851, which still stands. The Old Courthouse is designated as a historical site and is used as a museum.