History of Stewart County

Stewart County was created by the state legislature in 1830 and named for Daniel Stewart, an Indian fighter, Revolutionary War (1775-83) veteran, and the great-grandfather of U.S. president Theodore Roosevelt.

The first Europeans in present-day Stewart County were Spanish, who moved through the area about 1639. However, legal settlement began with Georgia’s fifth land lottery held in 1827. Lee County became one of five new west Georgia counties as a result. Then in 1828 the state sectioned off the western part of Lee County to create Randolph County, which in turn was divided on December 23, 1830, to create Stewart County.

Stewart County is located along the fall line, The entire western border of Stewart County is the Chattahoochee River. Only about twenty miles downriver from Columbus Ga (the northerly point of large-craft navigation from as far as the Gulf of Mexico), Stewart County traditionally provided a link between the Piedmont region of Georgia and the Gulf of Mexico. The river became a “highway” for cotton going to Gulf of Mexico ports in the 1800s.

Before the Civil War, Stewart County was one of the most prosperous cotton-producing areas in the state. A little more than twenty years earlier, it was a major exit point during the Creek removal in Georgia. Some of the final battles against the Creek nation were fought in Stewart County.

Farming, Forestry, Healthcare (dentistry to senior retirement), Five Star Credit Union, the School System and a Detention Center are some of the larger employers in the county.