Jones County, Georgia

Jones County, Georgia
Jones County Courthouse in Gray
Location in the U.S. state of Georgia
Georgia's location in the U.S.
Founded	December 10, 1807
Named for	James Jones
Seat	Gray
Largest city	Gray
Area
• Total	395 sq mi (1,023 km2)
• Land	394 sq mi (1,020 km2)
• Water	1.5 sq mi (4 km2), 0.4%
Population
• (2010)	28,669
• Density	70/sq mi (60/km²)
Congressional district	8th
Time zone	Eastern: UTC-5/-4
Website	www.jonescountyga.org

Jones County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2010 census, the population was 28,669. The county seat is Gray. The county was created on December 10, 1807 and named after U.S. Representative James Jones.

Jones County along with Morgan County, Putnam County, and Old Randolph were established by an act of the Georgia General Assembly passed on December 10, 1807 from land that had originally been part Baldwin County in 1803 and, earlier, part of the Creek Nation. Jones County was originally bounded by a line running North 56° East to Commissioners Creek, then North 15° West to Cedar Creek, then up the creek to corner Randolph County and Putnam County, then along a line to Ocmulgee River, and then down the river to where the old county line between Wilkinson County and Baldwin County was. It excluded parts of what is now Bibb County east of the Ocmulgee River, including the location of Fort Benjamin Hawkins, as they were part of a reserve guaranteed to the Creek Nation. Those areas were later added to Jones County after the Treaty of Indian Springs.

During the initial months of existence a town known as Albany served as the county seat of Jones County. Albany's exact location is unknown, but it might have been simply renamed Clinton. Clinton was established as the county seat by the Georgia General Assembly on December 22, 1808. Clinton became incorporated as a town in 1816. During the 1800s Clinton grew as a center of commerce and the cotton trade. Clinton remained one of the most populous cities in Georgia in the middle 1800s.

In December 1810 Jones County gained a portion of Putnam County between Cedar Creek and their original border. In December 1822 Bibb County was established and Jones County lost some of its land to that county.