Chilton County was established by the Alabama Legislature on December 30, 1868, from land obtained from Autauga, Bibb, Perry, and Shelby counties. It was originally designated Baker County for Alfred Baker, postmaster, justice of the peace, state legislator, and founder of the city of Clanton. The first county seat was Grantville, named for President Ulysses S. Grant, and located one mile northeast of the present courthouse site. Following a public referendum in April 1871, the county seat moved to Clanton along the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, where a two-story wood-frame courthouse at Second Avenue North and Sixth Street became the new seat of county government. After a petition by residents, the county's name was changed on December 17, 1874, to honor former Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court William Parish Chilton. An all-brick courthouse was built in 1896, damaged by fire in 1918, rebuilt in 1919, and served the county until a new courthouse facility was dedicated in February 1962. Known as the Peach Capital of Alabama, the county's orchards produce more than two-thirds of the total yield of Alabama's leading commercial fruit. The inaugural Chilton County Peach Festival was held in July 1947 at the Thorsby Institute, and organizers sent a prize-winning basket of Hale Haven peaches to President Harry Truman in Washington, D.C. On the county's eastern border, the Coosa River became the site of Alabama Power Company's first hydro-electric project in the state: Lay Dam, completed in 1914 on the Army Corps of Engineers Lock 12 site and named for company founder William Patrick Lay. Mitchell Dam, built at Dunkin's Riffle and completed in 1923, was named for former Alabama Power Company President James Mitchell. The establishment of rail systems, the Dixie Bee-Line Highway, and the interstate highway system significantly affected the growth and development of communities within the county.