5 December 1801 - Clarke County Is Created

On this day in 1801, there was no Athens yet, but the Georgia State Legislature did create Clarke County by carving out 250 square miles from Jackson County. Today, Clarke County is only about half that size, the geographically smallest county in Georgia.

The county is named for Georgia frontiersman and Revolutionary War General Elijah Clarke (1742-1799), who led the defeat of six hundred Loyalists at the Battle of Kettle Creek in Wilkes County, where he lived and fought with more than just those loyal to the Crown. There are indications the family actually spelled their name "Clark," but the county has kept the extra "e," as has the Elijah Clarke Chapter of the National Society of the Daughters of the Revolution.

Learn More:

• Map Guide to the U. S. Federal Census, 1790-1920 by William Thorndale and William Dollarhide in the Heritage collection.
• Antebellum Athens and Clarke County Georgia by Ernest Hynds in the Heritage and general collections.
• A Portrait of Athens and Clarke County, 2nd Edition by Frances Taliaferro Thomas in the Heritage collection.
• A Portrait of Athens and Clarke County, 1st Edition by Frances Taliaferro Thomas in the Heritage and general collections.
• Georgia Scenes: Characters, Incidents, &c., in the first half century of the Republic by Augustus Baldwin Longstreet in the Heritage and general collections.
• Hero of Hornet's Nest: A Biography of Elijah Clark by Louise Frederick Hays in the Heritage collection.
• Early Records of Georgia Volumes I & II, Wilkes County abstracted by Grace Gilliam Davidson in Heritage collection.
• Elijah Clarke Chapter of the DAR.