Elbert County was created from Wilkes County by act of December 10, 1790. It was settled in 1784 by Gen. George Mathews and a group from Virginia and Carolina. Petersburg, the original settlement and in its day the third largest town in Georgia, is now covered by the Clark Hill Reservoir. Revolutionary patriot Nancy Hart lived in the county. The county was named for Gen. Samuel Elbert, a Revolutionary soldier and Governor of Georgia from 1785 to 1786. A native of South Carolina and resident of Savannah, he was a member of the Council of Safety and fought at Savannah in 1778 and Brier Creek in 1779. On January 20, 1791, the first session of Elbert County Superior Court was held at the home of Thos. A. Carter on Beaverdam Creek, about 5 miles northwest of here, with George Walton, Georgia signer of the Declaration of Independence, presiding as judge. The Carter plantation house still stands, and the family cemetery is nearby. The county's first officers were Matthew Talbot, Clerk; Robert Middleton, Sheriff; Robert Cosby, Collector of Taxes; W. Higginbottom, Register of Probate; Thos. Burton, Receiver of Tax Returns; Richardson Hunt, Surveyor; and James Tate, Coroner.