Jett Thomas

Jett Thomas (May 13, 1776 – January 6, 1817) was an American military officer and builder.

Biography

Jett Thomas was born in Culpeper County, Virginia and moved with his family to Oglethorpe County, Georgia in 1784. He represented Clarke County, Georgia in the Georgia House of Representatives from 1805 to 1807. He fought in the War of 1812 under Brigadier General John Floyd in the First Brigade of Georgia Militia. Jett 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 that conflict.

He built Franklin College, the first permanent building and school at the University of Georgia (UGA) 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 state capitol building in Milledgeville (the capital of Georgia at the time), and that building later housed the Georgia Military College.