Native Mississippians, Tohomes, Mobilians, and Creeks inhabited this area for centuries. Tensaw was named for the Taensa people who lived nearby during the 1720s, farming the bottomlands and hunting the dense forests. Spanish explorer DeSoto traveled through in 1540, and European-Americans began moving into the Mississippi Territory in the late 1700s; by 1790 they had settled among the Creeks, Samuel Mims operated Mims ferry, and the David Mims home had been built. The first public school in the Mississippi Territory opened here in 1800, Lorenzo Dow visited in 1803, a cotton gin was built at Pierce’s Mill, and in 1811 the first post office in Baldwin County was established. During the Creek uprising in 1813, Fort Mims near Boatyard Lake was attacked and burned, nearly 400 were killed, and Federal troops arrived. In 1814, Fort Montgomery was built on the southern community later referred to as Montgomery Hill; complete with cannons, it housed the first hospital in the area. In the 1820s plantations were built around Montgomery Hill as soldiers received land after the War of 1812. Methodist and Baptists established the Union Church on Holley Creek in 1830, Montgomery Hill Baptist Church was organized in 1840 as the first in Baldwin County and built in 1854, and in the 1850s the Montgomery Hill Masonic Lodge was among the first in Baldwin County. After the war, in 1865, Union troops heading north burned the Booth plantation. From the mid-1800s to the turn of the 20th century, area maps used the name Tensaw, but local physicians recorded the region as Montgomery Hill on birth and death certificates. During the early 1900s, when roads were being paved and signs were posted, the community was officially designated as Tensaw.