Pierce County, Georgia

Pierce County Education, Geography, and History

Pierce County is a county located in the state of Georgia. Based on the 2010 census, the population was 18,758. Pierce County was created on December 18, 1857. The county seat is Blackshear. The county is named in honor of Franklin Pierce (1804-1869), fourteenth President of the United States.

Pierce County is part of the Waycross, GA Micropolitan Statistical Area.

Etymology - Origin of Pierce County Name

The county is named for Franklin Pierce, 14th President of the United States.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: CensusBureau Quick Facts

Pierce County History

Pierce County was created from parts of Appling and Ware counties. Georgia's 119th county was named for Franklin Pierce, 14th President of the United States.

Blackshear was named for General David Blackshear, who supervised construction of the Blackshear Road. Patterson was named for William Patterson who resettled in the county from New York. He ran a sawmill in the area.

The Pierce County courthouse is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. There have been preliminary efforts to have the old Blackshear Jail and its hanging tower listed on the National Register.

A Confederate prison camp in Pierce County held about 5,000 Union prisoners of war during the last months of the Civil War. Prisoners were transferred to Pierce County from Millen, and possibly Andersonville, so that Sherman's troops would not be able to free them on their march south.

Points of Interest

The Marion Anderson Library Black Heritage Collection in Blackshear contains about 300 volumes and oil paintings addressing African-American heritage. This is the largest publicly accessible collection of this type in the region.

Pierce County shares the Little Satilla Wildlife Management Area with Wayne County to the east.

Geography: Land and Water

As reported by the Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 343 square miles (890 km²), of which 316 square miles (820 km²) is land and 27 square miles (70 km²) (7.8%) is water.

 Pierce county is located in southeast Georgia. The county is in the Satilla River basin.

Neighboring Counties

Bordering counties are as follows:

• North: Appling County
• Northeast: Wayne County
• Southeast: Brantley County
• Southwest: Ware County
• Northwest: Bacon County

Education

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