Clayton County, located just south of Atlanta, is one of the smallest counties in the state in size yet it is the fifth largest in terms of population.
On November 30, 1858, the state legislature created Clayton County from parts of Fayette and Henry counties, making it the 125th county in the state. Clayton County is named for Augustin Smith Clayton, a Virginia native who moved with his family to Georgia as a child. He attended the University of Georgia and graduated in 1804. Clayton helped compile the law statutes of Georgia, served three terms as a judge of the Western Circuit, was a member of the Electoral College, and served in the U.S. Congress from 1831 to 1835.
After the Revolutionary War (1775-83) many veterans were given land bounties in Georgia. In the Treaty of Indian Springs (1821), the Creeks ceded their land to the state, and settlers from other parts of Georgia and southern coastal states moved into the area.
Jonesboro, the county seat, was originally called Leaksville but was renamed in 1845 after Colonel Samuel Goode Jones, a civil engineer with the Macon and Western Railroad Company, who also laid out the street plan for the city. Railroads played a tremendous role in improving Georgia’s development in the 1830s and 1840s. Under the leadership of Governor Wilson Lumpkin, the “father of Georgia’s intricate rail system,” in 1846 a railroad connected Jonesboro with stops in Morrow Station (later Morrow), Quick Station (later Forest Park), and Rough and Ready (later Mountain View).
Rail connections made Jonesboro a strategic asset during the Civil War (1861-65), attracting the attention of Union General William T. Sherman. During the Battle of Jonesboro, which began on August 31, 1864, Union troops seized control of the railroad and supply lines to the Atlanta home front were severed. Many of the Confederate soldiers killed at the Battle of Jonesboro are buried in the Patrick R. Cleburne Memorial Cemetery.
The twentieth century brought growth in transportation and higher education. Clayton County is home to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, the world’s busiest passenger airport and the state’s largest employer center, with a workforce of more than 56,000. In 2014 Clayton County joined the Metropolitan Atlanta Rail Transit Authority (MARTA), which provides access to points throughout the metro area. Clayton State University, founded in 1969 as Clayton Junior College, is located in the city of Morrow. Spivey Hall, one of the Southeast’s premier recital halls, is on the Clayton State campus. In addition, the Georgia Archives moved to Morrow from downtown Atlanta in the spring of 2003. One area that remains as a quiet and undisturbed haven for wildlife is the 146-acre Reynolds Nature Preserve.
Two historic homes, Stately Oaks and Ashley Oaks, are available for tours and hold special holiday events. Clayton County is also the site of the Road to Tara Museum, which houses the world’s largest permanent Gone With the Wind exhibition. Jonesboro’s survival from the devastation of the Civil War and the period of Reconstruction provided much of the background for Margaret Mitchell’s novel.
During the 1996 Olympic Games, Jonesboro hosted the beach volleyball competition at Atlanta Beach in Clayton County International Park. The Clayton County Water Authority also attracts visitors from all over the world who come to see the county’s natural land application process for the treatment of wastewater. The system purifies the wastewater and, at the same time, fertilizes the land; it also produces palletized fertilizer for the marketplace.
Since 1980, Clayton County’s population has grown and become more diverse. According to the 2020 U.S. census, its population is 297,595, an increase from the 2010 population of 259,424. Once 91 percent white, the county is now over 70 percent Black and has become one of the most heavily-Democratic counties in the nation. In addition to Jonesboro and Morrow, other incorporated cities in the county are Forest Park, Lake City, Lovejoy, and Riverdale.
