History of Hickman County Tennessee United States of America

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Hickman County was erected on December 3rd, 1807, from a part of Dickson County and was named in honor of Edmund Hickman, a surveyor, who, in 1785, together with James Robertson, and Robert Weakley, came to survey entered lands on Pine River. On that trip Hickman was killed by the Indians near the mouth of Defeated Creek on Duck River, within a mile of the present city of Centerville, the county seat.

The first permanent settlement was made by Adam Wilson, on Pine River, in 1817. In 1819, the county was organized. The commissioners appointed to run and mark the lines of the county were: David Love, Joel Walker, John S. Primm, and Joseph Lynn.

The first county seat was Vernon (chosen in 1810), which was succeeded by Centerville, located in 1822, on land donated by John C. McLemore and Charles Stewart. The act which created the county provided that a court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions should meet on the first Monday of January, April, July and October at the house of Wm. Joslin on Pine River. The first justices of the peace were: Thos. Petty, Wm. Wilson, Jam. Miller, Robert Dunning, and Alexander Gray. Wm. Wilson was chairman of the first session of the court. He was father of the first white child (James Wilson, born on December 27, 1806), born in Hickman County. This court elected the following officers: Wm. Phillips, sheriff; John Easley, trustee; Bartholomew G. Stewart, register; Joseph Lynn, ranger; and Wm. Stone, clerk.

Statistics of Hickman County: Population, 1920, 16,216. Assessed valuation of taxable property, 1921, $7,718,790. Area, 640 square miles. Number of farms, 1,928. Railway mileage, forty-six. Drained by Duck River. Soil fertile and well adapted to the live stock industry. Staple products are wheat, corn, oats, grasses and tobacco. Phosphate deposits are found in the county and there are fine beds of iron ore. Centerville, the county seat, has a population of 882, with good schools, churches, weekly newspaper, bank, wagon factory, saw mill and prosperous mercantile establishments. Scholastic population of county, 5,253; high schools, six; elementary schools, ninety-three.

From: Moore, John Trotwood. Tennessee, The Volunteer State, 1769-1923. Vol. 1. Chicago, IL, USA: S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1923.

History of Hickman County Tennessee

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