History of Tifton - In March of 1872, Henry Harding Tift selected a site for a sawmill alongside the tracks of the Brunswick and Albany Railroad, where two old well-trodden trails converged. Tift preferred to name the town, Lena, but it was not long before Tift's Town was shortened to Tifton and became the official designation. On December 29, 1890, Tifton officially became a city.