Rabun County was created by act of the legislature on Dec. 21, 1819, and was named for William Rabun, the 11th Governor of Georgia, who was elected in 1817 and died in 1819. Self-educated through reading, Rabun served as a member of the legislature and as President of the Senate. The county is also the location of the famous Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School for the education of entire families. Among the first county officers were Justices of the Inferior Court Edward Coffee, John McClure, Samuel Farris, William Kelly, William Gillespie, Andrew Miller, James Dillard, and Clerk Thomas Kelly.