Sylvester

Sylvester is the county seat of Worth County, Georgia, United States. The population was 5,990 at the 2000 census. The city is the county seat and business center of Worth County and is claimed to be the Peanut Capital of the World due to its peanut production.HistorySylvester started as a "beautiful nowhere" in 1893 and was first called "Isabella Station". When the Brunswick and Albany Railroad came through southwest Georgia, the county seat was Isabella, which is located three miles north of the railroad. Slowly, however, the center of trade and commerce shifted south along the railroad. Two other towns, Poulan and Sumner, sprang up along the railroad in Worth County, but it was Isabella Station that grew and prospered the fastest. In 1894, the citizens voted to change the name to "Sylvester". In 1898, Sylvester voted to incorporate and on December 21 of that year the Georgia Legislature agreed to incorporate it as a city.CourthousesThere have been four courthouses since Worth County was created in 1853. The first was a two-story frame structure on the public square in Isabella, which was then Worth's county seat. This building burned down in 1879, and a schoolhouse was used as a temporary courthouse until a new one could be built in 1893 — but that structure soon burned also. A new courthouse was constructed the following year, but in 1904 the legislature changed the county seat from Isabella to Sylvester.The next year, a new courthouse was built on Sylvester's public square. In January 1982, the new Worth County courthouse also suffered major fire damage due at the hands of arsonist Max Hufstetler. Hufstetler had been arrested in Worth County for a string of home and church burglaries. He decided that if he burned down the Worth County Courthouse, then the evidence that had been seized during his arrest could not be used against him in court. On January 27, 1982, he committed arson and the Worth County Courthouse was destroyed. Hufstetler was later convicted of arson in the first degree and his conviction was upheld in 1984 on appeal. The courthouse was repaired and the still sits on the public square in Sylvester.