Pierce County was created by act of the legislature on December 18, 1857, and was named for Franklin Pierce, a New Hampshire Democrat who was the fourteenth President of the United States from 1853 to 1857 and a general in the Mexican War. Blackshear, incorporated on December 16, 1859, was named for General David Blackshear, a noted Georgia Indian fighter. Among the first county officers were Sheriff John Donalson, Clerk of Superior and Inferior Courts David Rowell, Ordinary Aaron Dowling, Tax Receiver John Sugg, Tax Collector Edmund Thomas, Coroner James Thomas, and Surveyor James E. Blitch.
