Tattnall County was created by act of the legislature on Dec. 5, 1801, and was named for Josiah Tattnall, governor of Georgia at the time, who signed the act. Because there was no town in the new county, the act provided that all public business be transacted at the Zacharia Cox House on the Ohoopee River. In 1828 the legislature appointed a committee of seven men to select a site at the geographical center of the county for a courthouse. When a post office was opened at this site in 1832, it was named Reidsville for Robert E. Reid, judge of the Superior Court and later territorial governor of Florida.