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Ben Hill County

Ben Hill County covers 252 square miles of south central Georgia. Georgia's 146th county was carved from Irwin and Wilcox counties in 1906 and is named for Benjamin Hill, a U.S. senator who served as Troup County's state representative and senator in the mid-1800s.

The county seat is Fitzgerald, founded in 1895 by Philander H. Fitzgerald, a newspaperman from Indiana. The town's settlers opened a public school, which became the first school to provide textbooks free of charge. The courthouse was built in the first decade of the twentieth century and renovated during the 1950s. Still in use,

Ben Hill County Courthouse

the courthouse was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.

According to the 2000 U.S. census, the population was 17,484 (63.3 percent white, 32.6 percent black, and 4.6 percent Hispanic), a 7.6 percent increase from 1990. In 1999 just over 22 percent of the county's population lived below the poverty level, significantly more than the statewide average of 13 percent in the same year.

Although

Timber Harvesting

agriculture has always been important to the county, the high concentration of population in its county seat has resulted in a higher than average percentage of employment in the manufacturing sector. One of the largest employers in the area is Shaw Industries, and major agricultural crops are cotton, poultry, peanuts, timber, and tobacco.

Among the

Colony City Chase

historic places listed on the National Register are the Ben Hill County Jail, the Charles W. Kimball House (also known as the C. W. Smith House), and the Dorminy-Massee House, all located in Fitzgerald. Also in Fitzgerald is the Blue and Gray Museum. The county boasts nine recreational parks and one river-access park to the Ocmulgee River. Annual events include the Blues and Grays Festival and the Colony City Chase, both in October, and the Ebony-in-Arts Festival in the spring.

East Central Technical College is located in Fitzgerald and serves a five-county area.

Elizabeth B. Cooksey, Savannah

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