Hancock County on the Ogeechee River was created from Greene and Washington counties in 1793, the fifteenth county organized.  It was named for John Hancock, whose name heads the list of signers of the Declaration of Independence.  At its signing, Hancock had been president of the Continental Congress.

 

Sparta, the county seat, was named for the ancient Greek city, probably because its early residents realized they would need Spartan characteristics to survive.  Across the Oconee River from the new county was Indian territory, and Hancock County remained on the frontier for ten years before more westerly lands were ceded to the State of Georgia.  Border wars erupted sporadically for forty years in that area.

 

When first organized, Hancock County included part of present Taliaferro County.

 

A spot on the Oconee River in Hancock County had been the scene of a disputed treaty in 1786.  Fifty-nine head men of the Creek Nation had met at Shoulder Bone Creek on the Oconee with nine representatives of the existing Georgia counties, among them John Habersham for Chatham County and John King for Wilkes.  The treaty would have ceded all lands east of the Oconee River to the state, as had already been done in an earlier, overlapping treaty.  The Indians left five tribesmen in the hands of the Georgians as a guarantee.  In a short time, however, Chief Alexander McGillivray repudiated the Shoulder Bone Creek Treaty, saying that the negotiators were not representative of the Creek Confederation.  He was a sympathizer of the Spaniards in Florida.

 

Hancock County has sent four governors to the Georgia capital:  Nathaniel Edwin Harris, James McDonald, William Jonathan Northen, and William Rabun.

 
An historic trading path connecting Augusta with Mississippi River tribes, the Chickasaws and Choctaws, wound through Hancock County north of Sparta, crossing the Oconee River near the route of Georgia Highway 16.