Towns County was created by act of March 6, 1856, from Rabun and Union Counties. It was named for George Washington Towns, Governor of Georgia from 1847 to 1851. Born in Wilkes County on May 4, 1801, of a Virginia family, Towns was self-educated and became a merchant, lawyer, legislator, state senator, and Congressman. He died in 1854. The first officers of Towns County, commissioned on April 21, 1856, were Andrew I. Burch, sheriff; Martin L. Burch, clerk of Superior Court; James H. Moore, clerk of Inferior Court; Milton Brown, tax receiver; George M. Denton, tax collector; Robert S. Patton, coroner; James Alston, surveyor; and John W. Holmes, ordinary.