Tift County, Georgia

Tift County
Tift County
County
	Tift County Courthouse, (Built 1912), Tifton
	Location within the U.S. state of Georgia
	Georgia's location within the U.S.
	Coordinates: 31°28′N 83°32′W / 31.46°N 83.53°W
Country	United States
State	Georgia
Founded	August 17, 1905; 119 years ago
Named for	Nelson Tift
Seat	Tifton
Largest city	Tifton
Area
• Total	269 sq mi (700 km2)
• Land	259 sq mi (670 km2)
• Water	9.9 sq mi (26 km2) 3.7%
Population (2020)
• Total	41,344
• Density	160/sq mi (60/km2)
Time zone	UTC−5 (Eastern)
• Summer (DST)	UTC−4 (EDT)
Congressional district	8th
Website	www.tiftcounty.org

Tift County is a county located in the south central portion of the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 41,344.^[1] The county seat is Tifton.^[2]

Tift County comprises the Tifton, Georgia micropolitan statistical area.

History

The county was created on August 17, 1905, and is named for Henry Harding Tift, who founded Tifton in 1872. Tift purchased about 65,000 acres of virgin pine timberland there in the Wiregrass Region of South Georgia, and established a sawmill and a village for his workers. Tift eventually expanded into turpentine and barrel-making operations, and turned his barren timberlands into farms for cotton, corn, livestock, fruit, tobacco, pecans and sweet potatoes. When the Georgia Southern and Florida Railway intersected the Brunswick and Western Railroad near Tift's mill in 1888, the settlement was connected to Atlanta and became a boom town. It was incorporated as Tifton by the Georgia Legislature in 1890.

Tift provided employment and financial growth opportunities for his flourishing market center by founding the Tifton Cotton Mill, the Bank of Tifton, and other types of businesses in which he had a leading interest. These included fruit growing, groceries and general merchandise, cottonseed oil, lumber, brick and stone, and several railroads, all essential for the development of a region. Tift also established a model farm north of town and donated a large parcel of acreage for an agricultural experiment station; these enterprises led eventually to the development of Abraham Baldwin College and the Coastal Plain Experiment Station in Tifton.

Tift's civic commitment was most evident in his donation of lands for churches (Methodist, Baptist, and Episcopal) and Fulwood Park, and in his decades of service as a city councilman and mayor. Through a variety of business and civic undertakings, Tift contributed significantly to the economic and social development of south central Georgia. Though a captain of industry, agriculture, and finance, he is best remembered for his civic service and generosity.

Tift County was created on August 17, 1905, by an act of the General Assembly.^[3] Because Georgia law in 1905 did not allow a new county to be named after a living person, the legislature voted to name Tift County after Nelson Tift of Albany, Georgia, who was an uncle of Henry Harding Tift.

In 2013, John Edward (Edd) Dorminey a native of Tifton, author and historian drafted resolutions and presented them to the Tifton and Tift County Commissions which were passed unanimously. Soon after with assistance from Representative Jay Roberts the Georgia House of Representatives and the Senate voted to approve the submitted resolution establishing the naming of Tift County after its rightful founder, Henry Harding Tift.^[4]

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 269 square miles (700 km²), of which 259 square miles (670 km²) is land and 9.9 square miles (26 km²) (3.7%) is water.^[5]

The western portion of Tift County, roughly west of Interstate 75, is located in the Little River sub-basin of the Suwannee River basin. The county's southeastern third, from north of Tifton heading southeast, is located in the Withlacoochee River sub-basin of the same Suwannee River basin. The northeastern portion of the Tift County, east of Chula, is located in the Alapaha River sub-basin of the same larger Suwannee River basin.^[6]

Major highways

Interstate 75
U.S. Route 41
U.S. Route 82
U.S. Route 319
State Route 7
State Route 35
State Route 125
State Route 401 (unsigned designation for I-75)
State Route 520

Adjacent counties

Irwin County (northeast)
Berrien County (southeast)
Cook County (south)
Colquitt County (southwest)
Worth County (west)
Turner County (northwest)

Communities

Cities

Census-designated places

Unincorporated communities

Demographics

Historical population
Census	Pop.	Note	%±
1910	11,487		—
1920	14,493		26.2%
1930	16,068		10.9%
1940	18,599		15.8%
1950	22,645		21.8%
1960	23,487		3.7%
1970	27,288		16.2%
1980	32,862		20.4%
1990	34,998		6.5%
2000	38,407		9.7%
2010	40,118		4.5%
2020	41,344		3.1%
2023 (est.)	41,554	^[7]	0.5%
U.S. Decennial Census^[8] 1790-1880^[9] 1890-1910^[10] 1920-1930^[11] 1930-1940^[12] 1940-1950^[13] 1960-1980^[14] 1980-2000^[15] 2010^[16]

Tift County racial composition as of 2020^[17]
Race	Num.	Perc.
White (non-Hispanic)	22,189	53.67%
Black or African American (non-Hispanic)	12,049	29.14%
Native American	56	0.14%
Asian	650	1.57%
Pacific Islander	2	0.0%
Other/Mixed	1,179	2.85%
Hispanic or Latino	5,219	12.62%

At the 2020 United States census, there were 41,344 people, 15,144 households, and 10,703 families residing in the county.

Education

Tift County School District operates public schools.

Politics

United States presidential election results for Tift County, Georgia^[18]
Year	Republican		Democratic		Third party
Year	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%
2020	10,784	66.24%	5,318	32.67%	178	1.09%
2016	9,584	67.13%	4,347	30.45%	345	2.42%
2012	9,185	65.88%	4,660	33.42%	97	0.70%
2008	9,431	66.09%	4,749	33.28%	89	0.62%
2004	8,619	68.75%	3,864	30.82%	54	0.43%
2000	6,678	64.66%	3,547	34.34%	103	1.00%
1996	5,613	53.07%	4,198	39.69%	766	7.24%
1992	4,485	46.87%	3,930	41.07%	1,154	12.06%
1988	4,760	65.80%	2,446	33.81%	28	0.39%
1984	4,429	61.81%	2,736	38.19%	0	0.00%
1980	3,280	40.89%	4,572	56.99%	170	2.12%
1976	2,162	29.43%	5,185	70.57%	0	0.00%
1972	4,591	84.91%	816	15.09%	0	0.00%
1968	1,692	24.81%	1,187	17.40%	3,942	57.79%
1964	4,650	67.04%	2,286	32.96%	0	0.00%
1960	1,423	32.44%	2,964	67.56%	0	0.00%
1956	960	23.51%	3,123	76.49%	0	0.00%
1952	1,318	30.85%	2,954	69.15%	0	0.00%
1948	637	13.72%	3,158	68.00%	849	18.28%
1944	396	19.55%	1,630	80.45%	0	0.00%
1940	226	13.21%	1,463	85.51%	22	1.29%
1936	161	8.95%	1,627	90.49%	10	0.56%
1932	65	4.43%	1,394	95.09%	7	0.48%
1928	511	40.98%	736	59.02%	0	0.00%
1924	33	5.55%	522	87.73%	40	6.72%
1920	154	21.10%	576	78.90%	0	0.00%
1916	42	3.36%	1,034	82.79%	173	13.85%
1912	0	0.00%	305	94.43%	18	5.57%