Daviess County was established in 1836 and named after Col. Joseph Hamilton Daviess, a lawyer and U.S. District Attorney in Kentucky,
who was killed in 1811 at the Battle of Tippecanoe.

Gallatin was established as the County Seat in 1836. The county, which covers 569 square miles, is bordered on the north by Harrison County, the east by Livingston and Grundy, the south by Caldwell and on the west by DeKalb and Gentry.

Settlers were in the area as early as 1830, and many Mormons followed in the mid-1830s.