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The Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture © Tennessee Historical Society
Fertile soil and plentiful stands of timber made Dyer County rich farming country.
The early profitable crops of corn and tobacco were replaced in the post-Civil
War era by a reliance on cotton, and the timber industry expanded. Situated at
the head of steamboat navigation on the Forked Deer River, Dyersburg grew as
a river town, especially once the Grey Eagle made the first successful steamboat
trip in 1836. The county was spared the worst of the Civil War, as no major battles
or other activity occurred within its borders. Dyersburg resident Otho F. Strahl
raised a local Confederate infantry company in 1861 and then steadily advanced
to the rank of brigadier general in the Army of Tennessee. On November 30, 1864,
Strahl was killed at the battle of Franklin.
The county's first industrial boom dates to 1879, when the steamboat Alf Stevens
shipped timber from A. M. Stevens Lumber Company of Dyersburg to St. Louis markets.
The Stevens company established a large sawmill in 1880 and opened a planing
mill in 1885. The Bank of Dyersburg opened in 1880, while another timber industry,
Nichols & Co. Wooden Bowl Factory, began operations in 1881. The arrival
of the Newport News and Mississippi Valley Railroad in 1884 further expanded
market possibilities; a branch line, the Dyersburg Northern, soon linked the
county seat to Tiptonville. The new railroad links encouraged the creation of
new industries and businesses. In 1884, for example, investors established the
Dyersburg Oil Company, a cottonseed factory. This company remained locally important
through the twentieth century.
In 1904 and 1907 Dyersburg hosted two huge revivals conducted by evangelist George
C. Gates. The 1907 revival alone converted seven hundred people. The revivals
preceded Dyersburg's greatest boom as it emerged as a regional railroad hub.
Between 1909 and 1914 Dyersburg became the junction point for three different
lines, led by the Illinois Central Railroad. The Illinois Central expanded its
facilities throughout the county, building in 1920 a new combination depot at
the town of Newbern, a major cotton and livestock shipping point. Listed in the
National Register, this depot survives and is one of only two Amtrak passenger
stops in Tennessee. Newbern is the county's second largest incorporated city.
Smaller villages include Trimble, Fowkles, Finley, Bogota, and Heloise, the county's
sole Mississippi River village.
By the 1920s the rich timber resources of Dyer County were gone; cotton was the
county's leading resource. African Americans participated actively in the Rosenwald
school-building program, sponsoring and constructing four schools across the
county, while white officials put up most of the money for a modern sixteen-room
industrial training school for blacks. Known as Bruce High School, it remained
a segregated facility until it closed in 1966. In 1929 Dyersburg Cotton Products
built a modern plant complete with company housing on the outskirts of Dyersburg.
The town's largest industrial concern, the plant consumed about six million pounds
of cotton each year from local farmers. The great Mississippi River floods of
1927 and 1937 devastated western Dyer County, especially lands between the Obion
and Mississippi Rivers.
During World War II the Halls Air Base, located at the border of Lauderdale County
and Dyer County, created many civilian jobs as it trained hundreds of B-17 bomber
pilots. An emergency landing strip was also built in Dyersburg. After the war
agriculture in Dyer County began to shift from cotton into new crops. By the
mid-1980s soybeans composed the largest crop by far, followed by wheat, milo,
corn, and cotton. Industry continued to expand and the county became a regional
medical, educational, retail and distribution center. The establishment of Dyersburg
State Community College in 1969 enhanced educational and cultural opportunities
in the county. In the last two decades, two major projects have modernized the
county's transportation system: Interstate I-155 links Dyersburg with Missouri
via the only highway bridge (1976) over the Mississippi River between Cairo,
Illinois, and Memphis, and the four-lane expansion of U.S. 412 connects Dyersburg
to I-40 at Jackson.
The Goodspeed Publishing Co., History of Tennessee, 1887
The western portion of Dyer County lies in the Mississippi bottom, and the eastern half is level or gently undulating, while in the neighborhood of Mississippi Bluff are many steep hills. Immediately around Dyersburg the surface is level. Going north from that place the surface is much more undulating; south it is very level; east, very level, except in the vicinity of the creeks; west, first hills, then the bluff, and then level to the Mississippi River. The soil is generally dark, rich loam, with a sub-soil of yellow clay, but in the western districts there is considerable sand and the soil is much lighter in color, while that of the bottom lands is alluvial and very deep, and east of the bluff is generally of a rich silicious loam, somewhat calcareous. All the soils are very productive, and cotton, corn, wheat, tobacco, oats, potatoes, the grasses, and different fruits grow well, while in the forests are found poplar, oak, gum, hickory, walnut, chestnut, beech, cypress and other timber in abundance.
The Mississippi River washes the entire western border of the county; the Obion River enters from Obion County, about four miles west of the point where the lines of Obion, Gibson and Dyer meet, flows in a southwesterly direction and empties into the Mississippi, and North Forked Deer River enters from Gibson County and South Forked Deer River from Haywood County, the former flowing in a southwest direction, the latter in a westwardly direction, and meet about fives miles west of Dyersburg, and empty into the Mississippi. The other streams of the county are Richland, Louis and Pond Creeks, emptying into Forked Deer River; Reed Creek, emptying into Obion River, and Sharp Creek, emptying into Reed.
Dyer County was chiefly settled up by the middle Tennesseans, though not a few of the pioneers came from North Carolina and Virginia. Among those who received grants from the State of North Carolina for lands lying in Dyer County, and became settlers, were John Rutherford, for 5,000 acres; Ephraim Davidson, 2,000 acres; Martin Armstrong, 5,000; John McIver, 640 acres; Archibald Murphey, 3,200 acres; Wm. Hughlett, 500 acres; Griffith L. Rutherford, 3,000 acres; John Dougan, 2,106 acres; Wm. T. Lewis, 1,490 acres; and from the State of Tennessee, Thomas G. Polk, 2,000 acres; Ezekial Polk, 2,500 acres; Joseph Mitchell, 640 acres; Robert Branks, 320 acres; John Hunter, 500 acres; Robert Murry, 50 acres; Thomas H. Horn, 205 acres; M. B. Chamberlain, 50 acres; Eli Warrens, 500 acres; Thomas Marshall, 139 acres; Josiah Browder, 150 acres,; John B. Crenshaw, 60 acres.
The first settlement in the county was made in 1820 at "Key Corner", now in Lauderdale County, by Henry Rutherford, John Rutherford and Oliver Crenshaw. "Key Corner" was given its name by Henry Rutherford, who, as a surveyor, visited West Tennessee early and laid off a large number of land grants. Selecting a sycamore tree on Forked Deer River, about thirteen miles southwest from Dyersburg, Rutherford marked it with his initials and used it as a starting point for his surveys, and hence the name of "Key Corner". The second settlement in the county was made four and three fourths miles east of Dyersburg in 1821-22 by George Davis, Willis Chamberlain, Jerry Pierce and Wm. Martin. Another settlement was formed soon after on Obion River, by Thomas and James Dougan, Wm. Culverson, John Kimbro and others, and still another one between the two Forked Deer Rivers by Earl Fletcher, Thomas and Buchanan Nash, Joseph Clay and John Warrens. Other early settlers in various parts of the county were Benjamin Porter, Wm. Terrell, Nathan Benton, W. C. Chambers, John Kenley, Richard Ball, Ransom Hill, Moody Chase, Samuel McCorkle, Moses Hedden, Alexander McCullough, Edwin McCorkle, Stephen Roach, James L. Totton, Wm. L. Mitchell, Elijah P. Chambers, Ransom Byrn, James P. Pursell, Etheldred Thomas, Isaac Williams, Isaac Thompson, Henry Barringer, Woodard Rane, Wm. Ball, Isaac Curry, John Dunlap, Alex Ewing, David Endsley, Moses Endsley, Obediah Ferguson, George Gentry, J. W. Herinden, henry Holmes, Benj. Jordan, Wm. Jordan, Samuel McCall, Lewis Mosley, Legate McCrary, George W. Marr, Spencer Payne, Samuel Polk, Joseph Pierce, Jonathan Russell, John Ryall, Samuel Strickland, Edward G. Strange, Wm. Staggs, Anthony Sharp, John Terrell, David Turner, John G. Thurmand, John B. Thompson, Wm. White, Thomas Connell, Henry T. H., Wm. P. and Asa Fowlkes, George R. Mulherring, Daniel Parker, Benj. Smith, Archibald Wood, Samuel Walker, Wm. Norman, Samuel Gillaspie, John W. Rogers, John and Stephen Light, John B. Fiser, Matt Fiser, John, Henry and Benj. Wynn, Richard Henderson, Henderson Carlek, Zacharia Phillips, Jesse Clark, Mark Spencer, Archibald and Nathan Wilkins, Joseph Mitchell, Joseph Weakley, B. J. Williamson, Charles Rudder and Stephen Chetwood.
The first mill built in the county was a water-powered grist-mill, on Mill Creek by Griffith L. Rutherford, in about 1826, and the second one was a horse-power corn-mill built by John Warrens, fifteen miles southeast of Dyersburg. Other early mills were those of Asa Green, water-powered, on North Forked Deer River; Jonathan Frost's water-power mill on Lewis Branch, three miles east of Dyersburg; John Branch's on Lewis Branch. John Kimbro's horse-power, ten miles north of Dyersburg on Obion River, and Wm. Culverson's water-power, also on Obion River, all of which were in operation for many years supplying the county with meal and flour until the era of steam-power mills. The first cotton-gin built was at "Key Corner", and was erected in 1828 by John Jordan and W. P. Chambers, and the second was in the same neighborhood by Henry and James Crawford, and the next by Douglas Ferguson. The mills and gins of the county, at present, are as follows, the steam-power gins alone being mentioned, as it would be an endless task to name the many horse-power machines: First District, W. A. Gentry's steam grist-mill and gin; Second District, Walker Bros.' steam gin; Fourth District, W. D. Robert & Co.'s steam saw-mill and stave and heading factory, and Hunsaker & Co.'s steam saw-mill; Fifth District, Parker & Co.'s and J. F. Dunlap's saw-mills; Sixth District, Maj. Faircloth's saw-mill; Seventh district, T. C. Hobdey's saw and grist-mill and gin; Eighth District, W. S. Moore's saw-mill, Budd Chitwood's saw and grist-mill and gin, and Budd and James Hall's gins; Ninth District, Rice Rose's saw and grist-mill, and W. T. Wood's gin; Tenth District, Hobdey Bro.'s saw and grist-mill and gin, A. M. Stevens' saw-mill and John Hicks' gin; Eleventh District, Duck Ward's saw-mill, T. C. Buchanan's and L. M. Mitchell's gins; Twelfth District, King & Miller's and Dunley & King's gins; Fourteenth District, Harnett & Co.'s saw-mill; Fifteenth District, S. Lahn's saw-mill, W. L. Holloman & Co.'s grist-mill, and Pierce Jetung & Co.'s gin; Sixteenth District, J. M. Lane's gin; Seventeenth District, Wm. Read's saw-mill.
The General Assembly of Tennessee passed an act October 16, 1823, entitled "An act to establish two new counties west of Tennessee River", Section 6 of which act provides for the erection of Dyer County, with the following boundaries, to wit: "Beginning at the northwest corner of the first county west of Carroll County; running thence south with the first range line, to the south boundary of the Thirteenth (surveyor's) District; thence west with the district line to the western boundary of the State; thence on said western boundary to the fifth sectional line; thence east with said line to the beginning." Such were the boundary lines and territory of the county when organized, and until the establishment of Lauderdale County by act of the General Assembly, passed November 24, 1835; when a good slice was taken off the southern portion of the county and added to Lauderdale; and again was Dyer County reduced in territory by the establishment of Crockett County, by act passed November 23, 1873. At the present Dyer County is bounded on the north by the counties of Lake and Obion, east by Gibson and Crockett, south by Crockett, Haywood and Lauderdale, west by the Mississippi River, and has an area of about 600 square miles.
The act establishing Dyer County provides that the courts of the same be held at the house of John Warrens until the selection of a county seat and the erection of necessary public building, and fixes the time of holding such courts as follows: County court on the fourth Mondays in January, April, July and October, and circuit court on the second Mondays in May and November of each year. A subsequent act, passed November 13, 1823, appoints Abram Maury, William Hall, James Fentress and Benjamin Reynolds commissioners to run the boundary lines of the county and fix upon the most central eligible place for a permanent seat of justice. The commissioners selected the present site of Dyersburg, then know as McIver's Bluff, and John McIver and Joel Dyer each donated sixty acres of land upon which to locate the county seat and lay off a town. In July, 1825, the town was laid off into town lots, which were sold at public sale on the 12th of that month.
Dyer County has both river and railroad transportation facilities, the former being supplied by the Mississippi, Forked Deer and Obion Rivers, and the latter by the Newport News & Mississippi Railway. North Forked Deer River is navigable for small steam-boats as high up as Dyersburg for about nine months in the year, and boats have ascended South Forked Deer River as far as Jackson, while at certain seasons Obion River is navigable for lumber boats. The three streams are largely utilized for floating lumber and saw-logs at all seasons. The Newport News & Mississippi Valley Railway was completed through the county in 1883, and runs in a southwestwardly course, passing Trimble, Newbern, Dyersburg and Fowlkes. In 1872 the citizens of Dyersburg donated $50,000 to aid in the construction of the road, and during the same year a tax amounting to $50,000 was voted for the same purpose. The interest on this sum was paid for two years, and the railroad company, failing to comply with their part of the contract, the aid was discontinued, and has not been renewed. The matter is at present in litigation.
Dyer County has expended many thousands of dollars for bridges and levees. North Forked Deer River is spanned at Dyersburg by a handsome iron bridge 600 feet long, which was built in 1885 at a cost of $11,700, and South Forked Deer River is spanned at Yellow Bluff, five miles south of Dyersburg, by a wooden bridge 300 feet long, which was built in 1876, and cost $5,000. There are numerous other small bridges in the county, but not worth of mention in particular.
In 1830 Dyer County has a population of 1,904; in 1840 4,484; in 1850, 6,361; in 1860, of 10,536; in 1870, of 13,706, in 1880, of 15,118, and in 1886 of 18,750. The present voting population is 3,750, of which the Democratic party has a majority of 2,750.
In 1873 there was 327,690 acres of land assessed for taxation in the county, the value of which was $3,214,148, and the total valuation of taxable property was assessed at $4,072,081; in 1886 the number of acres assessed was 329,621, valued at $1,872,418, and the total valuation of taxable property was $2,608,570. The tax levy of the county for 1886 was 30 cents for State, 37 cents for county, 8 cents for roads, 25 cents for schools, and $1 poll each for State and county.
In 1870 the cereal products of the county were - wheat, 74,090 bushels; rye, 738 bushels; corn, 749,175 bushels; oats, 7,623 bushels; tobacco, 412440 pounds; cotton, 4,908 bales; sweet potatoes, 2,931 bushels. For the same year the live stock of the county amounted to - horses and mules, 5,417 head; cattle, 4,436 head; sheep, 8,831 head; hogs, 36,448 head. In 1886 the products are estimated as follows: Wheat 100,550 bushels; rye, 3 bushels; corn, 100,000 bushels; oats, 40,000 bushels; tobacco, 400,000 pounds; cotton, 9,000 bales; sweet potatoes, 30,500 bushels; and the live stock was - horses and mules, 5,470; cattle, 11,412 head; sheep, 4,500 head; hogs, 35,000 head.
The governor having duly commissioned John Rutherford, Benjamin Porter, John D. Burris, Wm. Lyrrell and Dr. Thomas Nash as magistrates for Dyer County, those gentlemen met at the house of John Warrens, who lived about fifteen miles southeast of what afterward became the county seat, in October, 1824, and formally organized the county court of Dyer County by electing John Rutherford, chairman, and Dr. Thomas Nash, clerk of the same. The records of this court, and of all other subsequent courts, having been destroyed by fire in 1864, nothing of their proceedings can be chronicled herein. The court continued to be held at Warren's house until 1826, when it adjourned to meet at Dyersburg, and during that year and a portion of the one following were held in a small log-house which stood on the present site of the Dyersburg Flour-mills. In 1827 a two-story log court house was erected on the Public Square, and the courts and records removed thereto. In 1836 a one-story frame took the place of the log court house, which in turn was superseded, in 1850, by a two-story brick. The latter, together with all the records of the county, save those alone of the register's office, was destroyed by fire in 1864, the incendiary being a Confederate soldier. The walls remaining intact, the building was rebuilt in 1867, the old walls being used, at a cost of about $8,000, and now presents a neat and substantial appearance. In 1827 a log jail was built by order of the court, and in 1842 a substantial brick jail was erected, which in 1883 was remodeled and enlarged at an expense of $7,000, and is doing excellent service as a county prison at the present. In 1849 the court established a county asylum three miles west of Dyersburg, and in 1872 purchased sixty acres of land two and a half miles south of Newbern, and erecting necessary buildings, removed the asylum thereto. The land cost $900 and the buildings about $300. The county court clerks who have served from the organization of the county to and including the present, have been as follows in the order given: Thomas Nash, Isaac Sampson, James H. Doyle, Robert Tarrant, Thomas H. Benton, Wm. Watkins, Zachariah Watkins and W. L. Wilkerson, the present incumbent.
The first term of the Dyer Circuit Court convened at John Warren's house in November, 1824, with Judge Mitchell presiding, Mark Mitchell as clerk, and Griffith L. Rutherford as sheriff. The sessions of the court were held at the above place until 1826, when with the county court, it adjourned to meet in Dyersburg. In the absence of records an authentic list of the officers of this court can not be obtained, and the following has been compiled from the memory of the oldest reliable citizens, and in the main is correct, if not entirely so:
Judges - Wm. Mitchell, James Hamilton, John Fitzgerald, W. R. Harris, John Read, Samuel Williams, Isaac Sampson, John A. Rogers, Gideon B. Clark, John T. Carthel and T. J. Flippin, the present incumbent. Attorney-generals since 1865 - Hardin J. Turner, Benjamin B. Edwards, John Skiffington, Dorsey O. Thomas and S. L. Cockraft, the present incumbent. Clerks - Mark Mitchell, Charles P. Clarke, John C. Hale, O. J. Linsey, Thomas H. Benton, W. B. Sampson, S. A. Williams, W. G. Harris and M. T. Brackin, the present incumbent. Sheriffs - Griffith L. Rutherford, Henderson Clarke, Asa Fowlkes, John P. Byrn, Z. B. Phillips, W. A. Dawson, John W. Hassell, David Pierce, White Tarkington, F. B. Shaw, A. B. Tigrett, John M. Nichols, N. B. Tarrant and W. G. Dyer, the present incumbent.
The Dyer Chancery Court was organized May 4, 1854, with Judge John W. Harris on the bench, who appointed Francis G. Sampson clerk and master. Previous to this time the chancery business of the county was transacted first at Huntington and then at Trenton. The following is a list of the officers of this court from its organization to the present:
Chancellors - John W. Harris, Isaac B. Williams, Wm. M. Smith, John Somers, Thomas C. Muse and John Somers, the present incumbent. Clerk and masters - F. G. Sampson, W. T. Byers, Wm. Watkins, E. G. Sampson, W. C. Doyle and J. W. Lauderdale, the present incumbent.
The first local practitioners before the Dyer County bar were Col. Isaac Sampson, Gen. Joel Dyer and M. I. Hill, all of whom were above an average of lawyers of that day. Later followed S. R. Latta, E. G. Hill, C. C. Moss, T. E. Richardson, F. G. Sampson, P. F. Strahl, W. S. Sugg, T. F. Bradford, W. F. Bradford, I. X. M. Barker, J. W. Farmer and H. T. Hanks. The bar of the present is composed of S. R. Latta, T. E. Richardson, H. Parks, Jr., W. S. Drapier, C. C. Moss, W. E. Bell, M. M. Marshall, B. B. Watkins, J. N. Parker, D. E. McCorkle, S. L. Cockraft, L. D. Hamilton, J. W. Burney, W. H. Walker, Thomas K. Reynolds and W. S. Coover.
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