Baker County was created by acts of the legislature on Dec. 12 and 24, 1825, and was named for Col. John Baker of Revolutionary fame. The original county site was at Byron, but an act of Dec. 26, 1831, established a new site named Newton for Sgt. John Newton, a Revolutionary soldier. One of the hardest battles of the Creek Indian War was fought in Baker County at Chickasawhachee Creek in 1836. Among the first county officers were Sheriff Stafford Long, Clerk of Superior and Inferior Courts Thomas F. Whittington, Coroner John Gillion, and Surveyor Jno. C. Neil.