Macon County, Georgia: History
Macon County was created in 1837 from parts of Houston ("house-ton") and Marion counties, effective December 14 of that year. The 91st county, it was named for the then-recently deceased General Nathaniel Macon of North Carolina, who served in the U.S. Congress for 37 years and ran for U.S. vice president. The city of Macon, Georgia was also named for him, but the city of Macon, Georgia, is the seat of Bibb County, a different county. The county was later reduced when parts were separated to organize Taylor and Peach counties, in 1852 and 1924, respectively.
The first county seat was not chosen until 1838, when the county's inferior court selected Lanier. The Georgia General Assembly (state legislature) designated it on December 29 of that year and incorporated it as a town.
In the 1850s, the Central of Georgia Railroad was built through Oglethorpe, changing county dynamics. As a result, the Georgia Assembly called for a referendum on moving the Macon County seat to Oglethorpe in February of both 1854 and 1856. Little is known about the first vote, but the second vote resulted in approval for a change to the county seat, and Oglethorpe was designated the following year in 1857.
During the Civil War, 13,000 Union soldiers who were prisoners of war died at the Confederate camp in Andersonville, Georgia from starvation and disease. In the late period of the war, Georgia also had difficulty supplying its own troops and people with food. Throughout the Civil War, more men on both sides died of disease than of their wounds. Commandants of the camp were prosecuted after the war for poor treatment of prisoners. The Andersonville National Cemetery, established for the many Union dead, is at the southwestern tip of the county.
The county has an active Mennonite community. The area code for Macon County is currently 478.