Name Jett Thomas | Died January 6, 1817 | |
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Jett Thomas (May 13, 1776 – January 6, 1817) was an American military officer and builder.
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Biography
Jett Thomas was born in Culpeper County, Virginia and moved with his family to Oglethorpe County, Georgia in 1784. He represented Clarke County, Georgia in the Georgia House of Representatives from 1805 to 1807. 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 in November 1816 as a Major General in the Georgia Militia, 3rd Division, 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 and John B. Scott 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 mouth 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.