Present-day Brinson was first settled in the 1850s and was originally known as Spring Creek. The name was changed in 1889 when the town was laid out and established by Simeon Brinson, and that same year the Alabama Midland Railroad completed a line through the town. Brinson soon became a shipping point for agricultural products, lumber, and metal stores, the major industries in the area. By an act of the Georgia General Assembly on August 22, 1907, the village was incorporated as the Town of Brinson. The town began to decline because of the closing of sawmill operations between 1910 and 1920. Simeon Brinson, 1847-1918, was a prominent farmer and businessman for whom the town was named. A native of Dougherty County, he saw action during the War Between the States as a private in Company E, Fifth Georgia Cavalry. After the war he moved to Decatur County and served as the first postmaster of the Spring Creek Post Office, established in 1874. He was still postmaster when the post office name was changed to Brinson on August 24, 1889. He served as mayor in 1907 and 1913-1914 and for two terms, 1909-1912, in the Georgia General Assembly, and he is interred in Brinson Cemetery.