 County
Profile
Incorporated: August 15, 1917
Population: 7609
Total Area: 338.1 Square miles
Cities and Towns
• Pearson (County Seat)
• Axson
• Kirkland
• Willacoochee
The county is named for William Yates Atkinson, who served as
Governor and Speaker of the Georgia House of Representatives.
Willacoochee is home to McCraine's Turpentine Still, a preserved
wood-burning turpentine still of 19th-century design that
operated from 1936 to 1942. Atkinson County, created from Clinch
and Coffee counties, has a county courthouse that was
constructed in 1921. Pearson, was named to honor Benjah Pearson
who served in the Indian War of 1838.
The Minnie F. Corbitt Memorial Museum was established in 1955
in the first residence built in Pearson (1873). It is dedicated
to the memory of South Georgia pioneers and their way of life.
The city of Willacoochee is home of the "No Name Bar," fondly
referred to by the late Lewis Grizzard in many of his columns.
Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Pearson was known as the
"Chess Capital" of the state. The town hosted four consecutive
championships, and Pearson residents made up one-fourth of the
membership of the Georgia Chess Association.
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