Joseph Dickson

Who was Joseph Dickson?

Joseph Dickson was an American politician and soldier who represented North Carolina's 1st district in the United States House of Representatives from 1799 1801, and would later serve in the Tennessee House of Representatives.

He was born in Chester County, Pennsylvania, though eventually moved with his parents to Rowan County, North Carolina. He was engaged in cotton and tobacco planting. He was commissioned captain in the Continental Army under Colonel Joseph McDowell in 1780, and at the Battle of Kings Mountain as major of the “Lincoln County Men”. He would eventually rise to the rank of brigadier general in the North Carolina militia. Dickson was elected clerk of the Lincoln County Court in 1781, and was a member of the North Carolina Senate from 1788 to 1795. During this time, he was appointed to the commission to establish the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He was elected as a Federalist to the Sixth Congress in 1798, representing North Carolina's 1st district.

Dickson moved to Tennessee in 1803 and settled in that portion of Davidson County which subsequently became Rutherford County.