the seat of Laurens County in central Georgia, was incorporated
by an act of the state legislature on December 9, 1812. Jonathan
Sawyer, a merchant and the first postmaster of Dublin, named the
town in honor of his wife's ancestral home of Dublin, Ireland.
The town nearly faded into obscurity, while the plantations
across the northern half of the county thrived. The city was
reincorporated in 1893 under its present system of government.
located near the upper end of the navigable portion of the
Oconee River, was a fairly important inland river port in the
years following the Civil War. The lawlessness of uncontrolled
liquor consumption, and the lack of a bridge over the river or
any rail facilities stifled the development of the city. The
completion of the Wrightsville and Tennille Railroad in 1886,
followed by its acquisition of the Oconee and Western Railroad
and the construction of the first permanent river bridge,
propelled the struggling hamlet into a period of sustained rapid
growth that did not cease u