A native of Mystic, Connecticut, Henry Harding Tift moved to Georgia in 1870. Two years later, he built a very successful saw mill and commissary on land that is now part of the city of Tifton, Georgia. In 1905, the Georgia legislature named a new county that included Tifton after Henry's late uncle, Nelson Tift, who was the founder of nearby Albany, Georgia. Counties were not named for living persons, though it's generally agreed that Tift County honors Henry Harding Tift, as well as his uncle Nelson.

--Information from the "History of Tift County" by Ida Belle Williams, C. 1948 by the Tift County Historical Society and reprinted by W H Wolfe Associates of Atlanta in 1979, pages 66-77. The chapter on the history of the Agricultural School tells that in 1906 Henry Harding Tift and a committee went to Albany, GA to make Tifton's bid for the new school to be opened in the Second Congressional District. Albany, Camilla, Pelham, Ashburn and Tifton were vying for it. When Mr. Tift rose to speak his allotted five minutes about Tifton's bid, he presented an amended bid of $55,00 in cash, free lights, water and telephone service for ten years, a sewerage system, 315 acres of land and the timber on that land. He had jumped the bid by $25,000! The committee went into executive session and Mister Tift raised his bid again. Of Tifton's bid, Mr. Tift gave $36,400 cash, the land, $4,500 in timber and a portion of the lights and water offer. It was estimated in the committee room that Tifton's total offer, thanks to Mr. H. H. Tift, netted $95,000. After 10 ballots by the committee, Tifton won by eleven votes, and the agricultural school- now Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College (ABAC) was awarded to Tifton.

Additional information: https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/business-economy/henry-tift-1841-1922