The Tennessee General Assembly passed a bill on October 25, 1803, creating Dickson County. Dickson was formed from Montgomery and Robertson counties. The county was named for William Dickson, a Nashville physician and statesman who served in Congress at the time. Although Dickson never lived in the county named for him, his relatives played roles in its early development.
Notable activity took place a decade earlier when in 1793, James Robertson, the “father of Middle Tennessee,” purchased land on Barton’s Creek. It was on this tract of land that Robertson built the first iron works on Tennessee’s frontier. In 1804, Robertson sold his furnace to Montgomery Bell, who became one of the state’s wealthiest capitalist and industrialist.
The development of the iron industry in Dickson County did much to shape the county in its early years. However, the building of the railroad in the 1860s, the building of the “Broadway of America,” now known as Highway 70, and the construction of Interstate 40, all of which pass through the southern portion of the county, have done much to shape the county over the last 150 years.
Founded in 1803, Dickson County was named for William Dickson, a Nashville physician and legislator who reportedly was a friend of President Andrew Jackson. Dickson County's rich history includes industry in the iron furnaces of Cumberland Furnace.
