Dooly County was created by acts of the legislature on May 15 and December 24, 1821, and was named for Col. John Dooly, a figure of Revolutionary fame who was murdered in his home by Tories in 1780. The original county site was at Berrien on the Flint River in 1823, and the name was changed to Drayton in 1833. In the early ’40’s the legislature voted to move the site to another town named Berrien, but this was not done. In the late ‘40’s the site was moved to Vienna, famed as the home of “elder statesman” Walter F. George, U.S. senator for more than thirty years after his election in 1922.