The county was named for Colonel Daniel Appling, who was considered Georgia’s most outstanding soldier in the War of 1812. The county was created in 1818 from treaty lands obtained from the Creek Indians.

At one time, Appling County was known as the “Turpentine Capital of the World.”

Incorporated in 1875, Baxley was named for Wilson Baxley. Baxley was an early settler who, like most of the early white settlers in the area, came from coastal North Carolina. He operated a general store where the town later developed.