Dickson County was erected on October 3, 1803, out of part of Robertson and Montgomery counties, and was named for William Dickson, a member of Congress, representing the Mero District. Its first settlements began about 1793 when a large body of land was granted by the State of North Carolina to Robert Bell and described as being located on Jones Creek. In February of the same year the Cumberland Furnace, the earliest furnace in the West, was started by James Robertson, by whom it was sold to Montgomery Bell. All deeds were proven before Andrew Jackson, one of the judges of the Superior Court of Law and Equity.
The first County and Circuit courts were held at the home of James Nesbit, on Barton's Creek, a few miles from Charlotte. It was organized by the following named magistrates: Montgomery Bell, William Doak, Sterling Brewer, [p.852] Wm. Russell, Gabriel Allen, William Teas, Samuel Harvey, Richard Napier and Jesse Croft.
In 1804 the Town of Charlotte, named for Aunt Charlotte Robertson, one of the early settlers, was laid off by a man named Ash, who reserved the central lot for a courthouse. In 1806 it became the county seat. Tracy Academy, a noted educational institution, was established there about 1830. Between 1810 and 1812 the county buildings were completed, and, for the next twenty or twenty-five years, Charlotte was a place of much importance. From 1819 to 1821 the Supreme Court held regular sessions there.
Early settlers in this county were: John Nesbit, Montgomery Bell, Richard Napier, Abraham Caldwell, and Hudson Johnson.
On May 12, 1810, the Cumberland Presbyterian Church was organized at the home of Rev. Samuel McAdoo, near the present City of Dickson, and its centennial celebration was fittingly observed in 1910.
In consequence of the effort made, fifteen or twenty years ago, to move the county seat from Charlotte to Dickson, the county now has a courthouse at each of these towns and two Circuit and Chancery courts, an arrangement which has proved eminently satisfactory.
In 1897 an effort was made to establish a Socialist Colony in this county, which effort attracted nation-wide attention. J. A. Wayland, of Greencastle, Indiana, located a company at Tennessee City, and established there a periodical entitled The Coming Nation. Dissension arose and Wayland went away but those of the colony who remained secured a site on Yellow Creek, at the noted Adam's Cave, six miles north of Tennessee City, where, under new leadership, they began operating again, continued the publication of The Coming Nation, and named the enterprise The Ruskin Colony. Dissensions, however, again arose, a legal battle ensued, and the effort ended in disaster. The remnant of the colony removed to Waycross, Ga. Ruskin Cave and the site of the former colony are now the property of the Ruskin Cave College Company.
Statistics of Dickson County: Population, 1920, 19,342. Assessed valuation of taxable property, 1921, $7,617,329. Area, 620 square miles. Number of farms, 2,544. Railway mileage, 49. Drained by Cumberland River and its tributary, Harpeth. Surface undulating, partly covered with forest. Soil is fertile and the staple products are corn, wheat, tobacco and live stock. Charlotte, the county seat, has a population of 200, is twelve miles from the N. C. & St. L. Railway and has good schools and churches, a bank and flourishing stores. Dickson, on the N. C. & St. L. Railway, is a town of 2,263 population, and has excellent schools, churches, a weekly newspaper, manufacturing establishments, banks, and stores doing large business. Scholastic population of county, 6,488; high schools, 4; elementary schools, 79.
Tennessee, The Volunteer State, 1769-1923, Vol. 1 -- transcribed by, Amanda Jowers
