Macon County, created by act of the legislature on Dec. 14, 1837, was named for Nathaniel Macon of North Carolina, President Pro-Tem of the U.S. Senate. The first county site at Lanier was moved to Oglethorpe in 1854 to be on the railroad. Lanier became a lost town, as did Travelers Rest, whose people moved to the railroad at Montezuma two miles away. An effort in 1893 to move the county site to Montezuma was unsuccessful. At Willow Lake in the county, Sam Rumph and his son Sam Henry Rumph developed the famous Elberta peach, named for Sam Henry Rumph's wife.