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About Chatham County
On Feb. 12, 1733, James Edward Oglethorpe founded the first colony in Georgia on the banks of the Savannah River in what is now Chatham County. He and 19 others were granted a charter making them the trustees of the colony of Georgia for 21 years. The objectives in founding this were protecting South Carolina from Spanish settlements in Florida, and providing an asylum for debtors.
Chatham county covers 438 square miles of land bordered by the Savannah River to the northeast and by the Ogeechee to the southwest. It reaches to the Atlantic ocean on the east. As of 2000 it was home to 232,048 people. The land is very flat and close to sea level, and the ocean reaches inland, breaking parts of the land into islands and effecting the main rivers with tides. Rainfall and plant life are abundant.