The Peach County Historical Society...

  Peach County was created from parts of Houston and Macon Counties in 1924 and was named for the area's abundant peach crop. Prior to 1821 the area had been a part of the vast hunting grounds of the Creek Nation. Many of the first settlers were descendants of those Virginians and Carolinians who a century earlier had been attracted to Georgia.  In 1821 Georgia had another land lottery and out of this action was created Houston County. In the 1820s a trading post was built in what is now downtown Fort Valley. James Abbington Everett, a North Carolinian, established a trading post because of two Indian trails that crossed here. One trail went from Fort Hawkins in Macon to Barnard's Crossing (now Oglethorpe). The other ran from Benjamin Hawkin's Creek Indian Agency on the Flint River to Old Hartford, which was across the Ocmulgee River at what is today Hawkinsville. 

 

 Everett named the little village that was growing around the trading post, Fort Valley after his good friend, Arthur Fort, who was a Revolutionary War Veteran and a legislator from Milledgeville.

Everett was also responsible for getting the railroad through Fort Valley. Although he died before the first train ran, he gave this area a gift which was the way to market peaches.

Fort Valley was incorporated in 1856.