Colquitt

Formed February 25, 1856 (115^th county)

Colquitt County (45,902), Moultrie (14,638)

The classic domed Neo-Classical Revival courthouse sits on a square surrounded by Central Avenue, Main Street, 1^st Avenue, and 1^st Street.  United States Highway 319 is 1^st Avenue.  This white brick facility was built in 1902 using the designs of Andrew J. Bryan and Company.  It was renovated in 1957, 1994 and 2001.  It features a tower with working clock and columns.  The grounds have veteran memorials, a bell, a fountain, and an amphitheater.  An annex was added in 2013.  Moultrie has always been the county seat although it was called Ochlockoney until 1859.  The county was created on February 25, 1856 from parts of Thomas and Lowndes counties as the 115^th county.  Senator Walter Terry Colquitt provided his name to the county.  He is also the source name for Miller County’s seat.  Revolutionary War General William Moultrie is the namesake of the county seat.  The county center is in Moultrie 1.2 miles Northeast of the city center. 

The area of the county is 552 square miles.  It is 15 of 159 in size in the state.  It ranks 44 out of 159 in population in the state.  It has a density of 83.2 persons per square mile making it 67 out of 159 in the state.  Colquitt County has 38.1% of its population in its incorporated areas.  United States Highway 319 crosses the county from the northeast to the southwest, Tift County to Thomas County.  The county is basically rectangular with Moultrie located slightly southwest of county center.  Moultrie is the county seat and the largest city.  It is 31.9% of the county population. 

Colquitt County government consists of a manager, a sheriff, an administrator, a coroner, a clerk, and a tax commissioner (executive).  It has 7 Commissioners (legislative.)  Sixteen Superior Court Judges serve Colquitt, Atkinson, Baker, Berrien, Brooks, Calhoun, Clay, Clinch, Cook, Decatur, Dougherty, Early, Echols, Grady, Irwin, Lanier, Lowndes, Miller, Mitchell, Quitman, Randolph, Seminole, Terrell, Thomas, Tift, Turner, and Worth counties and a State Judge and Six County Judges, court clerk, and county attorney serve Colquitt County (judicial.) The county is in southern Georgia southeast of Albany, Georgia and northwest of Valdosta, Georgia.  The county is surrounded clockwise by Worth, Tift, Cook, Brooks, Thomas, and Mitchell counties.  This county is in the Moultrie Micropolitan Statistical Area.