Washington County was an original county obtained from the cession of Creek Indian lands in 1783 and named for the first President of the United States, George Washington.  The treaty whereby Georgia acquired Washington County was later repudiated by the Scot Indian Alexander McGillivray, a leader of the Creeks.  The dispute that resulted grew into the Oconee War and contributed to the unsettled conditions of that frontier for at least twenty years.  The earliest settlers were veterans of the Revolutionary War who were given land grants there.  Their estates, large by modern standards, tended to stay whole through many generations.  It was the influence of these early grants that resulted in Washington County's having larger than average farms into modern times.

 

Georgia's tenth county obtained land for the county seat as a gift from a merchant named Saunders.  In his honor the town that was founded there chose the name  Sandersville, changing the spelling but not the intended favor to Saunders.  The town dates to 1796 but was not incorporated until 1812.

 

The courthouse stands beside the old stage coach road that connected Louisville and Milledgeville, now the Dixie and Nancy Hart highways.  The first courthouse to stand at that site burned March 24, 1855, in a massive fire that destroyed all but five houses in the whole town.  General Sherman had the next courthouse burned in 1864.  It was not replaced until 1899.
 

The county also was the home of two Governors of Georgia:  Jared Irwin and Thomas W. Hardwick. 

 

The Irwins were community leaders from Washington County's earliest history.  Around 1790 they built a fort near Union Hill as protection during the many Indian raids on the frontier farms.

North of Sandersville at the town of Warthen was a hewn log jail dating from 1783, where Aaron Burr was held overnight as he was being conveyed to Virginia to stand trial for treason.