Ashley County

Ashley County, the fifth largest county in the state, was formed on November 30, 1848, from part of Drew County with final boundary adjustments made in 1861. Hamburg is the county seat. The Ashley county courthouse is early contemporary in style and has a unique, round, courtroom where all participants in a trial face one another. The landscape of the county is coastal plain, level to rolling, flat cropland, and pine-forested hills. Two-thirds of Ashley County is hill land, most in pine timber and forest products with the first blocks of forestland being bought up by lumbermen in 1898. The original sawmill was in operation in 1901. Another quarter of the county’s land is devoted to agriculture. The rich sandy loam soil created by the Mississippi and Bayou Bartholomew rivers has been farmed for generations. Although cotton is still king, livestock, poultry and other commercial cash crops are grown. Bayou Bartholomew, the longest bayou in the United States runs through the county. West of the bayou is Overflow National Wildlife Refuge that offers excellent hunting and fishing. Ashley County has an innovative recycling program that has taken 65% of the waste stream out of their landfill. The county owns equipment to press paper and yard waste into small cubes, which are then sold to Georgia-Pacific for use as fuel. Today Georgia-Pacific owns 45% of the land in the county, supporting the manufacturing of hardwood veneer, plywood, paper and chemicals.

8708532000

County Officials				Phone		Fax		E-Mail
County Judge		Emory Austin		(870) 853-2000		(870) 853-2005		judgejan2003@sbcglobal.net
County Clerk		Regina Kersten		(870) 853-2020		(870) 853-2082		ashleycoclerk@sbcglobal.net
Circuit Clerk		Vickie Stell		(870) 853-2030		(870) 853-2034		vstell4@sbcglobal.net
County Sheriff		David G. Johnson		(870) 853-2040		(870) 853-0017		ashleycountyso@yahoo.com
County Collector		Sherry Stanley		(870) 853-2050		(870) 853-2055		taxcollect@sbcglobal.net
County Treasurer		Flora Mae Byrd		(870) 853-2010		(870) 853-2082		fm_byrd@yahoo.com
County Assessor		Nancy R. Collins		(870) 853-2060		(870) 853-2002		ashleyassessor@sbcglobal.net
County Coroner		Steve Hartshorn		(870) 853-5252		(870) 853-5253
Justice of the Peace		Samuel L. Arnold
Justice of the Peace		Bob Barnes
Justice of the Peace		Earl Deal
Justice of the Peace		William Gilbert						billgilbert1300@msn.com
Justice of the Peace		Carlton Lawrence
Justice of the Peace		Corliss McCain
Justice of the Peace		Frank Rawls
Justice of the Peace		Danny W. Rice
Justice of the Peace		Joe Sasser
Justice of the Peace		Ricky Sims
Justice of the Peace		Lila K. Thurman