Tift County was created by an act of the legislature on August 17, 1905, and was officially named for Nelson Tift, a well-known businessman, legislator, and mayor of Albany. Its organizers also had in mind his nephew Henry Harding Tift, who founded Tifton in 1872 when he built a sawmill and commissary there, though the first post office was not established until 1887. Among the first county officers were Sheriff J.B. Baker, Ordinary W.S. Walker, Clerk J.E. Peoples, Tax Receiver J.A. Marchant, Tax Collector J. Henry Hutchinson, Treasurer S. F. Overstreet, Coroner J.E. Johns, and Surveyor J.T. Webb.