Bibb County, Georgia

administration
Bibb County Courthouse
US state :	Georgia
Administrative headquarters :	Macon
Address of the administrative headquarters:	Bibb County Courthouse 601 Mulberry Street Macon, Georgia 31208
Foundation :	December 9, 1822
Made up from:	Jones County , Twiggs County Monroe County
Area code :	001 478
Demographics
Residents :	155,547 (2010)
Population density :	240 inhabitants / km ²
geography
Total area :	661 km²
Water surface :	13 km²
map

Website : www.co.bibb.ga.us

The Bibb County is a county in the US state of Georgia to the United States . The county seat is Macon .

geography

The county is located in central Georgia and has an area of 661 square kilometers, of which 13 square kilometers are water surface. It is bordered in a clockwise direction by the following counties: Jones County , Twiggs County , Houston County , Crawford County, and Monroe County . The main cities are Macon and Pine .

The county is part of the Macon Metropolitan Area .

history

William Wyatt Bibb

Bibb County was formed on December 9, 1822 from parts of Jones, Twiggs and Monroe Counties and named after William Wyatt Bibb , a Georgia politician and the first elected governor of Alabama .

Before the arrival of the European colonists, the area had been a center of various Indian civilizations. Already in prehistoric times, Paleo-Indians and their successors of the Archaic period lived on the Ocmulgee River. Characteristic for the region was the Macon Ridge Phase , an archaeological culture between 950 and 1150, which is attributed to the early Mississippi culture and left behind several artificial hill structures known as mounds on the river , which are now preserved in the Ocmulgee National Monument . When British traders established a trading post on the river in 1690, this area was inhabited by the Muskogee Indians. Like the other Indian peoples, the Muskogee gradually lost control of their land through a series of negotiations and treaties. Although the Muskogee did not surrender their land until the second treaty with Washington in 1826, the land on both sides of the Ocmulgee River had effectively been under Georgia's control since 1821 .

The city of Macon was founded in 1823 and served as the county seat. By 1850, the population of Bibb County had grown to 12,699 residents (including 5,637 slaves). The location on the river was critical to the growth. In 1829 the first steamers came up the Ocemulgee River. Since the river was only navigable as far as Macon, the city quickly developed into a trading city, which in turn contributed to rapid economic and industrial growth. In 1838 the railway connection to Forsyth was completed.

Former Bibb County Courthouse in Macon, renamed William Augustus Bootle Federal Building and United States Courthouse in 1998

The Cadwalader Raines House

growth of population
Census	Residents	± in%
1830	7154	-
1840	9802	37%
1850	12,699	29.6%
1860	16,291	28.3%
1870	21,255	30.5%
1880	27,147	27.7%
1890	42,370	56.1%
1900	50,473	19.1%
1910	56,646	12.2%
1920	71,304	25.9%
1930	77,042	8th %
1940	83,783	8.7%
1950	114.079	36.2%
1960	141,249	23.8%
1970	143,418	1.5%
1980	150.256	4.8%
1990	149.967	-0.2%
2000	153,887	2.6%
2010	155,547	1.1%
Before 1900 1900–1990 2000 + 2010

Bibb County was initially attacked only once during the Civil War . The military on both sides quickly recognized the excellent location of the city and everyone wanted to use it for their supplies. Macon became the capital of Georgia from November 1864 to March 1865 when Milledgeville abandoned for security reasons. The railroad tracks that were so important to central Georgia were destroyed during the Civil War. It would take decades for the economy to recover from this blow. Eventually the rails were re-laid and Central Georgia began to revive economically. Production started up again and agriculture became the primary employer.

In 1915 the cotton plantations were threatened by a pest, the corn worm. The rest did the subsequent dry spell and the First World War . Since the outbreak of war, the demand for cotton had declined rapidly, and so had the price. In the end, it was CE Woolman who first came up with the idea of spraying the fields with chemicals from the air. He founded Delta Airlines for this purpose. A hangar was built at Wheeler . In 1917 it was misused as an army camp, and also in World War II from 1941. Although located next door in Houston County , the construction of Robins Air Force Base also had an impact on Bibb County. The Air Force Base quickly became the largest employer in central Georgia and also attracted a number of subcontracting companies, who in turn provided jobs again. Another important employer was the Brown and Williamson Tobacco Corporation , which was active in Macon from 1977. In 2003 it merged with the RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company . The new headquarters will be in Winston-Salem , North Carolina .

Further educational institutions

Bibb County has four high schools: Wesleyan College , founded in 1836 and the first college in the world to graduate from, Mercer University , Macon State College , and Central Georgia Technical College .

Celebrities

Two well-known personalities come from Bibb County: the poet and author Sidney Lanier and the musician and singer Otis Redding .

Population development

The population boom lasted from the end of World War II to around 1960. Since then, Bibb County's population has grown at a much slower pace, and has even fallen somewhat in the 1980s . According to the US census in 2000 , the population has increased slightly to 153,887 inhabitants, which is made up of 50.1 percent white, 47.3 percent black and 1.3 percent Hispanic American.

Demographic data

According to the 2010 census, the then 155,547 inhabitants were distributed over 60,295 inhabited households, which gives an average of 2.48 people per household. There are a total of 69,662 households.

64.2% of the households were family households (consisting of married couples with or without offspring or one parent with offspring) with an average size of 3.10 persons. There were children under the age of 18 in 33.7% of all households and persons aged 65 and over in 24.5% of all households.

29.0% of the population were younger than 20 years, 26.6% were 20 to 39 years old, 26.3% were 40 to 59 years old, and 18.2% were at least 60 years old. The mean age was 36 years. 47.1% of the population were male and 52.9% were female.

43.2% of the population identified themselves as white, 52.1% as African American , 0.2% as Native American and 1.6% as Asian Americans . 1.4% said they belonged to another ethnic group and 1.4% to several ethnic groups. 2.8% of the population was made up of Hispanics or Latinos .

The average annual income per household was 36,614 USD , while 26.7% of the population lived below the poverty line.