Jett Thomas

Jett Thomas (May 13, 1776 – January 6, 1817) was an American military officer and builder.

Biography

Jett Thomas was born in Culpepper County, Virginia and moved with his family to Oglethorpe County, Georgia in 1784. He fought in the War of 1812 under Brigadier General John Floyd in the First Brigade of Georgia Militia. Jett led the Baldwin Volunteer Artillery company from Milledgeville, Georgia and was commissioned as a Major General in the Georgia Militia for his service in that conflict

He built Franklin College, the first permanent building and school at the University of Georgia (UGA) in Athens, Georgia. The college building was designed from the same plans as Connecticut Hall at Yale University, the alma mater of UGA's first president, Josiah Meigs. The UGA building is now known as Old College. In 1807, Jett built the state capitol building in Milledgeville (the capital of Georgia at the time), and that building later housed the Georgia Military College.

Jett Thomas died at the age of 40 from cancer of the eye and was buried in Milledgeville.

Legacy

In 1825, the Georgia General Assembly named Thomas County, Georgia in his honor. The county seat of that county, Thomasville, was also named after General Thomas the following year, and in 1825 the city of Thomaston, Georgia was named after General Thomas.

References

• Georgia Journal, January 14, 1817
• History of the University of Georgia, Thomas Walter Reed, Imprint: Athens, Georgia : University of Georgia, ca. 1949, p.75
• The New Georgia Encyclopedia entry for Thomasville, Georgia
• Old State Capitol, Milledgeville, Ga., Digital Library of Georgia
• Thomas G. Rodgers, Night Attack at Calabee Creek
• William J. Northen, Men of Mark in Georgia, A. B. Caldwell, 1912, pp. 378–380.