In February 1858 the Texas legislature formed Knox County from lands formerly assigned to Young and Bexar territories; because the area remained unsettled, it was again decreed a county in 1876 and attached to Baylor County in 1879 for administrative purposes. The county was organized in 1886, with the town of Benjamin, founded by Hillary Bedford in 1884 and named for his oldest son, as county seat. The County was named for Henry Knox, a Major General in the Continental Army and the Secretary of War from 1785 to 1794.