Jefferson County was created from parts of Burke and Warren counties in 1796 and named for President Thomas Jefferson. Honoring a Revolutionary War ally, founders named the county seat Louisville for King Louis XVI of France. An early settler, George Galphin, maintained a trading post from the 1750s and cultivated great influence among the Creek Indians of this region. It was at his trading post that the Creeks made a treaty and ceded all the land between the Altamaha and St. Mary's rivers to Georgia. Louisville was the state capital from 1796 until 1806 succeeding Savannah and Augusta.