Calhoun County, Georgia

Calhoun County is a rural county in the southwestern part of the U.S. state of Georgia. Its county seat is Morgan and its population was 5,573 in 2020.

History
Calhoun County was named for John C. Calhoun, the seventh Vice President of the United States. It was created from parts of Early and Baker counties on February 20, 1854.

Rival political factions disagreed about whether the county seat should be in Concord, a community north of present-day Leary, or in Dickey, then known as Whitney. As a compromise, a spot halfway between Concord and Whitney was chosen for the county seat, and the town of Morgan was established there.

In 1923 the state legislature moved the county seat to Arlington as directed by a county referendum. This decision was reversed in 1929, restoring Morgan as the county seat.

Calhoun Memorial Hospital, a 25-bed critical access hospital in Arlington originally founded as a Hill-Burton hospital, closed in 2013 after 62 years of operation.

In 2008, members of the Downtown Business Authority in Arlington founded the South Georgia Regional Information Technology Authority (SGRITA) with help from the state government to provide wireless broadband service to several counties in rural southwest Georgia. In 2017 SGRITA moved its office to Blakely in Early County.

Geography
The county seat is Morgan, where the historic Calhoun County Courthouse is located. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 284 sqmi, of which 280 sqmi is land and 3.2 sqmi (1.1%) is water.

The vast majority of Calhoun County is in the Ichawaynochaway Creek sub-basin of the ACF River Basin (Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River Basin). The county's western and southwestern corner, from Arlington running northwest to west of Edison, is in the Spring Creek sub-basin of the same larger ACF River Basin.

The United States Department of Agriculture has designated most of the county's land as prime farmland. Agricultural, forestry, and wildlife plantations line the county's eastern edge.

Adjacent counties

 * Terrell County (northeast)
 * Dougherty County (east)
 * Baker County (southeast)
 * Early County (southwest)
 * Clay County (west)
 * Randolph County (northwest)

Cities

 * Arlington
 * Edison
 * Leary
 * Morgan

Unincorporated communities

 * Dickey
 * Williamsburg

Demographics
As of the 2020 United States census, there were 5,573 people, 1,736 households, and 1,152 families residing in the county. Of these people, 4.0% were under 5 years old, 16.9% were under 18, and 16.6% were 65 or over. The population was 39.3% female. The foreign-born population was 4.1% of the total. Of residents aged 5 or older, 7.7% spoke a language other than English at home.

There were 1,736 households. The average household size was 2.56. The county had 2,406 housing units, of which 65.6% were owner-occupied.

Economy
Many farms in Calhoun County grow corn, oats, sorghum, and wheat. Calhoun State Prison in Morgan is a major employer. Calhoun Nursing Home, a 60-bed long-term care facility in Edison, is now operated by Miller County.

Education
The Calhoun County School District has an elementary school and a middle-high school all in Edison. The district has about 530 students.

Pataula Charter Academy opened in 2010 in Edison as a tuition-free public charter school serving several counties in southwest Georgia. It has about 609 students in kindergarten through 12th grade.

The Calhoun County Library in Edison is part of the Kinchafoonee Regional Library System.

Government
Calhoun County has a council-manager government with five commissioners elected by district.

Politics
Calhoun County is staunchly Democratic in US presidential elections. The last Republican candidate to win the county was Richard Nixon in 1972.

Major highways

 * Georgia 37.svg State Route 37
 * Georgia 41.svg State Route 41
 * Georgia 45.svg State Route 45
 * Georgia 55.svg State Route 55
 * Georgia 62.svg State Route 62
 * Georgia 216.svg State Route 216
 * Georgia 234.svg State Route 234