 In 1849, the newly organized Minnesota Territory legislature authorized the creation of nine large counties across the territory.One of those, Pembina (later renamed as Kittson), contained areas that were partitioned off on 8 March 1858 to create Toombs County, named after Robert Toombs (1810–85) of Georgia.Toombs had been a member of the US House of Representatives (1845-1853), and US Senate (1853-1861).