Heard

Formed December 22, 1830 (76^th county)

Heard County (11,414), Franklin (956)

The red brick and metal roof courthouse for Heard County was built in 1964.  Tomberlin-Sheetz Architects provided the Modern style designs.  It replaced a nice 1894 courthouse.  The county was carved from Cherokee County on December 22, 1830 as the 76^th county.  Franklin has always been the county seat.  The courthouse sits near Main and Davis streets.  United States Highway 27 passes two blocks south of the site.  Settler Stephen Heard is the source for the county’s name.  The county seat is named for American statesman Benjamin Franklin.  He is also the namesake of Franklin County.  The county center is 2.6 miles North of Franklin. 

Heard County government consists of a manager, a sheriff, an administrator, a coroner, a clerk, and a tax commissioner (executive).  It has 6 Commissioners (legislative.)  Eighteen Superior Court Judges serve Heard, Butts, Carroll, Clayton, Coweta, Fayette, Henry, Lamar, Meriwether, Monroe, Pike, Spalding, Troup, and Upson counties and Four County Judges, court clerk, and county attorney serve Heard County (judicial.) The county is located in the western part of the state on the border with Alabama.  The county is surrounded clockwise by Carroll, Coweta, and Troup counties and Alabama.  The Chattahoochee River flows through the middle of the county. 

The area of the county is 296 square miles.  It is 99 out of 159 counties in the state.  It ranks 117 out of 159 in population in the state.  It has a density of 38.6 persons per square mile making it 109 out of 159 in the state.  Heard County has 15.5% of its population in its incorporated areas.  United States Highway 27 crosses the county north to south from Carroll County to Troup County.  The county looks like a rectangle that is skewed to the southeast.  Franklin is located in the southeast quarter of the county.  Franklin is the county seat and the largest city.  It is 8.4% of the county population.  This county is in the Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta Metropolitan Statistical Area.