Screven County is a

county A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

located in the southeastern part of the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

. As of the 2020 census, the population was 14,067.US 2020 Census Bureau report, Screven County, Georgia The

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...

is Sylvania.

History

The county was created on December 14, 1793, and was named for General James Screven, who died fighting in Georgia during the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was the armed conflict that comprised the final eight years of the broader American Revolution, in which Am ...

. Some wartime accounts used the alternate spelling of "Scriven" for the general, and the county's name was often spelled that way in its early history, as reflected on 19th-century Georgia maps. Sylvania became the

in 1847, moved from Jacksonborough, by an act of State legislation. The Screven County Courthouse, built in 1964, is the fourth courthouse to serve Screven County.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and (1.6%) is water. The

Savannah River The Savannah River is a major river in the Southeastern United States, forming most of the border between the states of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia and South Carolina. The river flows from the Appalachian Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean, ...

borders the eastern side of the county, and the

Ogeechee River The Ogeechee River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed April 26, 2011 blackwater river in the U.S. state of Georgia. It heads at the confluence of its North and Sout ...

borders the southwest portion. Elevation varies to around 40 feet on the Savannah river to 320 feet at the Bay Branch community, located a few miles west of Sylvania. Pine, oak, dogwood, and other trees prevalent to the South can be found in Screven County. The very northern portion of Screven County, defined by a line running from Girard southeast and parallel to State Route 24 to the

South Carolina South Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders North Carolina to the north and northeast, the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, and Georgia (U.S. state), Georg ...

border, is located in the Middle

sub-basin of the Savannah River basin. A north-central section of the county, from Sylvania north and centered on Hiltonia, is located in the Brier Creek sub-basin of the same Savannah River basin. The southern portion of Screven County, from Newington running northwest through Sylvania, is located in the Upper

sub-basin of the Ogeechee River basin. The remaining southeastern corner of the county is located in the Lower

sub-basin of the larger Savannah River basin.

Major highways

* * * * * * *

Adjacent counties

Allendale County Allendale County is a county located in the U.S. state of South Carolina. As of the 2020 census, the population was 8,039, making it the least populous county in South Carolina. Its county seat is Allendale. History Allendale County was fo ...

(north) * Hampton County,

(east) * Effingham County (southeast) * Bulloch County (southwest) * Jenkins County (west) * Burke County (northwest)

Communities

Cities

* Hiltonia * Oliver * Sylvania

Towns

* Newington * Rocky Ford

Unincorporated

* Cooperville *

Dover Dover ( ) is a town and major ferry port in Kent, southeast England. It faces France across the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel at from Cap Gris Nez in France. It lies southeast of Canterbury and east of Maidstone. ...

* Halcyondale * Millhaven

Demographics

As of the 2020 United States census, there were 14,067 people, 5,098 households, and 3,395 families residing in the county.

Politics

With the exception of 1928, Democrats carried the county in every election up until 1960.

Jimmy Carter James Earl Carter Jr. (October 1, 1924December 29, 2024) was an American politician and humanitarian who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party ...

and

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician and lawyer who was the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, ...

both carried the county twice. Since 2000, the county always votes with the Republicans.

Notable people

* John Abbot, naturalist,

entomologist Entomology (from Ancient Greek ἔντομον (''éntomon''), meaning "insect", and -logy from λόγος (''lógos''), meaning "study") is the branch of zoology that focuses on insects. Those who study entomology are known as entomologists. In ...

, wrote ''The Natural History of the Rarer Lepidopterous Insects of Georgia'' * Lee Rogers Berger, explorer, paleoanthropologist * Edward Junius Black, member of the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Artic ...

(1839–1841; 1842–1845) * Bucky Dent,

New York Yankees The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Am ...

shortstop (born in

Savannah A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) biome and ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach th ...

) but spent his early years in Sylvania * Francys Johnson, senior

NAACP The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is an American civil rights organization formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E. B. Du&nbs ...

official * Macay McBride,

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

pitcher * John R. McKinney, Georgia's most decorated World War II hero * Louie De Votie Newton, pastor and president of the Southern Baptist Convention * Sam Sommers, former NASCAR Driver, former Georgia Late Model Racing Champion, and Georgia Racing Hall of Fame member

References

Dixon Hollingsworth, ed., The History of Screven County, Georgia (Dallas, Tex.: Curtis Media Corporation, 1989). http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/13/13251.html

External links

* {{Coord, 32.75, -81.61, display=title, type:adm2nd_region:US-GA_source:UScensus1990 Georgia (U.S. state) counties 1793 establishments in Georgia (U.S. state) Populated places established in 1793