Dickson County, Tennessee

Dickson County History, Geography, Demographics, Cities and Towns, and Education

County Seat: Charlotte
Year Organized: 1803
Square Miles: 490

Court House:

P.O. Box 220
County Courthouse
Charlotte, TN 37036-0220

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Named in honor of William Dickson (1770- 1816), Nashville physician, member and speaker of the state house, US congressman, trustee of the University of Nashville.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

History of Dickson County

Created 1803 from Montgomery and Robertson counties; named in honor of William Dickson (1770- 1816), Nashville physician, member and speaker of the state house, US congressman, trustee of the University of Nashville.

Dickson County was formed in 1803 from Montgomery and Robertson counties. (Acts of Tennessee 1803, Chapter 66).

The Tennessee General Assembly formed Dickson County on October 25, 1803, from the counties of Montgomery and Robertson and named it in honor of Congressman William Dickson, a Nashville physician. An industrial county from its inception, Dickson County was part of the frontier until 1818. The first court justices included several well-known Tennesseans: Montgomery Bell, William Doak, William Russell, Sterling Brewer, Gabriel Allen, Lemuel Harvey, Jesse Craft, Richard C. Napier, and William Teas. They organized the county on March 19, 1804, at the home of Robert Nesbitt on Barton's Creek. Later sessions of the court met at the homes of Colonel John Nesbitt and John Spencer until the courthouse was completed in 1810.

The county seat of Charlotte, named for James Robertson's wife, was built on 50 acres purchased from Charles Stewart for five thousand dollars. On May 30, 1830, a tornado devastated the town, destroying most of the businesses and homes, as well as the jail and courthouse, along with many county records. A new brick courthouse was completed in 1832 and is now the oldest courthouse in the state.

Find more from the Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture: DICKSON COUNTY

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 491 square miles (1,272 km²), of which, 490 square miles (1,269 km²) of it is land and 1 square miles (4 km²) of it (0.29%) is water.

Dickson County is bordered on the NE by the Cumberland River. The county is drained by the Harpeth River.

Neighboring Counties:

Montgomery County (north)
Cheatham County (east)
Williamson County (southeast)
Hickman County (south)
Humphreys County (southwest)
Houston County (northwest)

Cities and Towns:

- Burns	town	Incorporated Area
- Charlotte (County Seat)	town	Incorporated Area
- Dickson	city	Incorporated Area
- Slayden	town	Incorporated Area
- Vanleer	town	Incorporated Area
- White Bluff	town	Incorporated Area

County Resources:

Enter County Resources and Information Here

County Resource Guide

Counties: US Map

The history of our nation can be seen as a prolonged struggle to define the relative roles and powers of our governments: federal, state, and local. And the names we've given our counties, our most locally based jurisdictions, reflects the "characteristic features of our country!"

But age, size and colorful names of our counties isn't the only reason to explore counties' role in American history, or the history of county government itself. In fact, the story of county government reflects the larger meanings of American history.

Today's counties are the most flexible, locally responsive and creative governments in the US. They are the most diverse, varying in size, population, geography, and governmental structure. In their politics and policies, they express a 1990's political slogan "Think globally, act locally."

Penn Foster High School

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