 Brantley County was created in 1920 from portions of Charlton, Pierce, and Wayne counties. It was named for Benjamin Daniel Brantley, a self-made man who worked his way up as a real leader of men and won the "love and affection" of many people in this area.
 Hoboken was Brantley County's original county seat, and the county's first courthouse was built here in 1921 -- the year following its creation. In 1923, the legislature designated Nahunta as Brantley's new county seat. It is not clear what happened to the courthouse in Hoboken or what served as the county's new courthouse for the seven years following removal of the county seat. A new two-story, brick courthouse was built in Nahunta in 1930 and continues to serve today, though an addition was constructed in 1978. It was built in the Colonial Revival architectural style. This courthouse is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
On August 14, 1920, the General Assembly proposed a constitutional amendment to create Brantley County from portions of Charlton, Pierce, and Wayne counties (Ga. Laws 1920, p. 34). In that year's general election, Georgia voters ratified the proposed amendment on Nov. 2, 1920, which marks the date of Brantley County's creation (although a state historical marker on the courthouse square incorrectly cites the county's creation as the day the legislative act proposing the constitutional amendment was approved). Why was Brantley County created by constitutional amendment instead of an act of the General Assembly? In 1904, Georgia voters had approved a constitutional amendment limiting the number of counties in the state to 145. The next year, the General Assembly created eight new counties, bringing the total number to 145 -- the constitutional limit. Nevertheless, there was continuing pressure to create more counties. Beginning in 1906, lawmakers got around the 145-county limitation by creating new counties through constitutional amendments that were not subject to the limitation. By 1924, Georgia had 161 counties -- 16 of which had been created by constitutional amendment. On Jan. 1, 1932, Milton and Campbell counties merged with Fulton, leaving 159 counties. In 1945, Georgia voters ratified a new constitution -- one which provided an absolute limit of 159 counties, with an additional provision
see
text that no new country could be created except through consolidation of existing counties.
Two years after Brantley County's creation, local authorities discovered that the legal description of the county's boundaries contained several errors. As a result, the General Assembly passed an act on Aug. 5, 1922, which corrected the language of the 1920 constitutional amendment (Ga. Laws 1922, p. 335). According to this act, Brantley County's boundaries were now defined as:
 Beginning at the southeast corner of Pierce County, at the
southeast corner of lot of land number three hundred (300) in
the ninth district of Pierce County, and thence northwards along
the line between Pierce and Charlton Counties to the southwest
corner of land lot number thirteen (13), in the second district
of Charlton County; thence eastwards along the south line of
land lots numbers thirteen (13), fifty-two (52), seventy-seven
(77), one hundred and sixteen (116), one hundred and forty-one
(141), one hundred and eighty (180), two hundred and five (205),
and fractional lot two hundred and forty-four (244), and thence
continuing in a straight line to the Big Satilla River, and thence
northward along the channel of said Big Satilla River to the
Camden County line;' thence northwards along the line between
Wayne and Camden Counties to the Glynn County line; thence further
northwards along the line between the Counties of Wayne and Glynn
to a point on said county line one mile north of the main line
of the Atlanta, Birmingham and Atlantic Railway; thence westwards
along a line one mile north of and parallel with the aforesaid
main line of the Atlanta, Birmingham and Atlantic Railway to
the Little Satilla River and the line between the Counties of
Wayne and Pierce; thence southeast along the channel of the Little
Satilla River to the southwest corner of land lot number one
(1) in the third district of Wayne County; thence southwards
along the west lines of land lots numbers thirty-two (32) and
thirty-one (31), in the second district of Pierce County to the
channel of the Big Satilla River; thence westwards up the channel
of the Big Satilla River, through Pierce County, to the county
line between Pierce and Ware Counties; and thence south and southeast
along the county line between Pierce and Ware Counties to the
Charlton County line; and thence eastwards along the county line
between Pierce and Charlton to the southeast corner of Pierce
County, the point of beginning aforesaid.
There is a debate as to whom Georgia's 158th county was named
for. The state historical marker on the grounds of the Brantley
County courthouse and several other sources (including an article
that appeared in a Savannah newspaper in 1920) say the county
was named for
Benjamin
D. Brantley (1832-1891). Other sources, however, say the real
person being honored was Brantley's son,
William
Gordon Brantley (1860-1934). The younger Brantley worked for
a while with his father, but left home to attend the University
of Georgia, where he graduated from law school. After practicing
law in Pierce County, William Brantley represented Appling County
in the Georgia House of Representatives (1884-85) and Georgia
Senate (1886-87). He also served as prosecuting attorney (1888-96),
but is most remembered for serving eight terms as a member of
the U.S. House of Representatives (1897-1913). For sixteen years,
William Brantley represented the area that would become Brantley
County in Congress. In 1913, after thirty years in public office,
Brantley decided to return to the practice of law. Seven years
later, the legislature created Brantley County. Which Brantley
was the legislature honoring? The act creating the county did
not say, and notwithstanding the Savannah newspaper account, there
is not conclusive evidence. However, most Georgia counties are
named for politicians or military heroes, and William Brantley
seems far more likely to have the record of public service for
which the legislature would honor when naming a new county.
On Aug. 14, 1920 legislation
proposing a constitutional amendment to create Brantley County
provided that Hoboken serve as county seat. Two days later, legislation
was approved incorporating Hoboken. Soon, many Brantley County
residents petitioned for removal of the county seat to Nahunta.
[Click
here
for the story of the controversy over location of Brantley's county
seat.] A referendum was held on June 21, 1923, and of the total
votes cast, 1,446 favored Nahunta and 458 supported Hoboken. Subsequently,
the General Assembly designated Nahunta Brantley's new county
seat effective Aug. 16, 1923 (Ga. Laws 1923, p. 216). In an act
of July 28, 1925, the legislature incorporated Nahunta (Ga. Laws
1925, p. 1273).
The name "Nahunta" appears to be of Indian origin,
and Kenneth Krakow has identified an Iroquoian word of that spelling
believed to refer to tall trees. However, that does not account
for why the name was adopted in Georgia. Krakow offers as one
possible explanation the story that a timber producer by the name
of N.A. Hunter lived in the area. After the railroad came through,
a siding was built to load his timber onto railroad cars. This
siding was identified as "N.A. Hunter," which in time
was noted on maps as "Nahunta." However, Brantley County
genealogist Thomas Earl Cleland has checked census records from
1850 to 1900 and can find no N.A. Hunter living in the area. Probably
the more plausible explanation is that many of settlers of southern
Wayne County came from North Carolina. There is a Wayne County
in North Carolina, and in that county was a small town known as
Nahunta, which was south of a Nahunta Creek. Thus, when residents
of that town came to Wayne County, Ga., they may have thought
it fitting to also bring their old town name. [Click
here for more
on the story of Nahunta.]Whatever the truth, Georgia's Nahunta owes its existence to
the railroad. Around 1860, an east-west railroad was built from
the future site of Waycross across southern Wayne County to Brunswick
( see
1863 map). (After the war, this became known first as the
Brunswick and Albany Railroad, and then as the Brunswick and Western
Railroad.) After the war (and likely in the 1870s), a railroad
stop by the name of Nahunta developed (see
1881
and
1883
Georgia railroad maps). This Nahunta, however, is not the same
as today's Nahunta. In 1902, a north-south railroad from Jesup
to Folkston was completed through Wayne County. The new railroad
intersected the old east-west railroad about a mile and a half
east of Nahunta. Because of the importance of the railroad, residents
began moving to the new junction, where a new Nahunta emerged.
With that, the old Nahunta became a dead town.
____________________________________________________________________________________
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Brantley County Chamber of
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Post Office Drawer B
Nahunta, Georgia 31553
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