Wheeler County was created by act of the legislature on Aug. 14, 1912, and was named for Gen. Joseph Wheeler, a famous Confederate cavalry leader and a major general of cavalry in the Spanish War. He twice saved Augusta from Kilpatrick's Union cavalry, at Waynesboro, Ga., in 1864 and at Aiken, S.C. in '65. For his brilliant work at Santiago, Teddy Roosevelt called him "a regular gamecock." The first county officers were Ordinary Wm. B. Kent, Superior Court Clerk John Durden Brown, Sheriff J.F. Wright, Tax Receiver W.T. Hadden, Tax Collector J.A. Martin, Treasurer Daniel Pope, Surveyor E. Miller, and Coroner James J. Brantley.