{{short description|American politician}} {{Use mdy dates|date=February 2025}} {{Use American English|date=January 2025}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Jett Thomas | birth_date = May 13, 1776 | death_date = January 6, 1817 (aged 40) | birth_place = Culpeper, Colony of Virginia | office = Member of the<br>Georgia House of Representatives<br>from Clarke County | term_start = 1805 | term_end = 1807 | battles = War of 1812 | branch = Georgia Militia | death_place = Washington, Georgia, U.S. }}
'''Jett Thomas''' (May 13, 1776 – January 6, 1817) was an American military officer, politician, and builder who served as a member of the Georgia House of Representatives and participated in the early construction of the University of Georgia.
==Early life== Jett Thomas was born in Culpeper, Virginia and moved with his family to Oglethorpe County, Georgia in 1784.
== Career == Thomas represented Clarke County, Georgia in the Georgia House of Representatives from 1805 to 1807.<ref>Smith, p. 345</ref> He fought in the War of 1812 under Brigadier General John Floyd in the First Brigade of Georgia Militia. In March 1814, Thomas led the construction of Fort Bainbridge and Fort Hull on the Federal Road.<ref name=Brannon>{{cite news |last=Brannon |first=Peter A. |date=April 17, 1932 |title=Fort Bainbridge, In Russell |url=https://digital.archives.alabama.gov/digital/collection/voices/id/6796/rec/1 |work=The Montgomery Advertiser |location=Montgomery, Alabama |access-date=September 4, 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=O'Brien |first1=Sean Michael |title=In Bitterness and in Tears: Andrew Jackson's Destruction of the Creeks and Seminoles |date=2003 |publisher=The Lyons Press |location=Guilford, Connecticut |isbn=1-59228-681-X |page=119}}</ref> Thomas 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 the war.<ref>Smith, p. 345</ref>
Thomas built the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, the first permanent building and school at the University of Georgia campus 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 Old State Capitol in Milledgeville, Georgia, which was the capital of Georgia from 1807 to 1868, and that building later housed the Georgia Military College.<ref>Smith, p. 345</ref>
== Death == Jett Thomas died at the age of 40 from cancer of the mouth in Washington, Georgia. He was buried in Milledgeville.<ref>Smith, p. 345</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=More Information|url=http://friendsofcems.org/baldwin/MoreInfo.php?888WE021009|access-date=2020-06-15|website=friendsofcems.org}}</ref>
===Legacy=== In 1825, the Georgia General Assembly named Thomas County, Georgia in his honor.<ref>{{cite book | url=http://www.kenkrakow.com/gpn/t.pdf| title=Georgia Place-Names: Their History and Origins | publisher=Winship Press | author=Krakow, Kenneth K. | year=1975 | location=Macon, GA | pages=225 | isbn=0-915430-00-2}}</ref> The county seat of that county, Thomasville,<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=REtEXQNWq6MC&pg=PA249 | title=Historical Gazetteer of the United States | publisher=Routledge | date=May 13, 2013 | accessdate=30 November 2013 | author=Hellmann, Paul T. | pages=249| isbn=978-1135948597 }}</ref> was also named after General Thomas the following year, and in 1825 the city of Thomaston, Georgia was named after General Thomas.
==Notes== {{Reflist}}
==References== *[https://web.archive.org/web/20070927032023/http://www.friendsofcems.org/MemoryHill/SQLSelect2.asp?key=WE021009 Georgia Journal, January 14, 1817] *[http://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/cgi-bin/ebind2html.pl/reed_c02?seq=39 ''History of the University of Georgia'', Thomas Walter Reed, Imprint: Athens, Georgia : University of Georgia, ca. 1949, p.75] *[http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?path=/CitiesCounties/Cities&id=h-2220 The New Georgia Encyclopedia entry for Thomasville, Georgia] *[http://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/larc/id:jlc0923 Old State Capitol, Milledgeville, Ga., Digital Library of Georgia] *[http://www.hsgng.org/pages/nightatt.htm Thomas G. Rodgers, ''Night Attack at Calabee Creek''] *William J. Northen, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=Rg8ZD0XhkRMC&dq=Jett+Thomas&pg=RA17-PA378 Men of Mark in Georgia]'', A. B. Caldwell, 1912, pp. 378–380. *Smith, Gordon Burns, ''History of the Georgia Militia, 1783-1861, Volume One, Campaigns and Generals'', Milledgeville: Boyd Publishing, 2000. ASIN:B003L1PRKI.
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Thomas, Jett}} Category:American militiamen in the War of 1812 Category:Thomas County, Georgia Category:University of Georgia campus Category:Deaths from cancer in Georgia (U.S. state) Category:1776 births Category:1817 deaths Category:Politicians from Culpeper County, Virginia Category:Members of the Georgia House of Representatives Category:American militia generals Category:People of the Creek War Category:19th-century members of the Georgia General Assembly