A More Detailed Historical Account of The Nashville - Charlotte Road (Charlotte Pike/Turnpike) in Middle Tennessee

The Charlotte Pike

This post presents a comprehensive and detailed narrative of a road widely regarded as one of the most historically significant transportation corridors in Middle Tennessee: the Nashville–Charlotte Road, more commonly known today as the Charlotte Turnpike or Charlotte Pike. This work is grounded in the research of numerous previous historians who have examined various elements of the road’s past, but to my knowledge, the informoation in this post represents the first attempt to compile such a comphensive and lenghty study of those findings into a single, expansive historical narrative that I hope this turns out to be. My hopes are that this work will serve as a centralized resource of extensive information both for researchers and future historians seeking a concise account of the Charlotte Pike’s history and evolution.

Shown above, mid-morning sunlight filters through the branches of this oak tree situated along Dog Creek Road in Southern Cheatham County. When the modern asphalt surface is conceptually removed and replaced with the earlier dirt and gravel roadway, the surrounding landscape likely appears much as it did for the greater part of the road’s more than two-century-long history. It is plausible that this scene has remained substantially unchanged since the road’s earliest years, potentially dating to a period when the oak—now rising approximately ninety to one hundred feet in height—was itself only a young sapling and a silent contemporary witness to the road’s earliest use.

About the author -

I was born in June of 1984 and was raised in a home in the small community of Shacklett, located on Highway 70, about two miles north of Kingston Springs in Southern Cheatham County. I currently live in the same house today, helping in running our family-owned canoe rental business that my parents began in 1988. My house sits less than 30 yards from Dog Creek on its south side. I can look out my bedroom window and see the creek. The spot from which I am writing these words is less than one hundred yards from where the Charlotte Road crossed Dog Creek, about 100 yards before it empties into the Harpeth River.

Accordingly, this study places particular emphasis on the central, or midpoint, segment of the Charlotte Road, focusing on a fifteen-mile corridor that constitutes its most geographically and historically significant section. Spanning from approximately six miles directly east of my home where the road climbed the first of several ridges—known as Sullivan’s Ridge—crossing the eastern boundary of what would become Cheatham County following its establishment in 1856. From there, the route of the road continued westward along the ridge just a couple of miles north of present-day Pegram, before descending into the Dog Creek valley, where it closely followed the course of Dog Creek for approximately two miles, all the way to the Harpeth River. After crossing the Harpeth River at the mouth of Dog Creek, the road passed directly through areas containing significant Native American archaeological sites located on both the north and south sides of Shacklett. From there, the road followed the general path of modern-day Highway 70 to White Bluff, where it then took a northwestwardly course, eventually reaching Charlotte after another eight to nine miles. In its entirety, the Charlotte Road extended approximately 37 to 38 miles, connecting downtown Nashville in Davidson County with the town of Charlotte in Dickson County.

Above: The general course the Charlotte Pike followed from Sullivan's Ridge in the east to the town of Charlotte in the west.

In providing such a comprehensive account of the road’s history, the narrative below has been broken down and organized into the following chapters:

 1.) A brief summary, along with a 1794 map, of a primitive roadway reportedly located in Middle Tennessee known as Glover’s Trace. Little documentary evidence survives regarding this early route, and the limited information that has been published is both scarce and difficult to access. Available accounts suggest that Glover’s Trace may have been established as early as the 1760s, predating the Nashville–Charlotte Road by approximately three to four decades.

This section also examines the earliest ironworks established in Middle Tennessee, with operations beginning circa 1796 in a region that would later become north-central Dickson County. Many of these early furnaces were owned by James Robertson, a prominent Tennessee pioneer whose roles encompassed surveyor, soldier, Indian agent, political leader, and co-founder of Nashville. Recognizing the necessity of a reliable transportation route to ensure the efficient and profitable operation of his forges and furnaces, Robertson undertook the planning and construction of a roadway linking his industrial enterprises to the nearest major urban center, Nashville, located approximately thirty-six miles to the east. Construction on this route likely commenced between 1800 and 1802, with the full length of the road completed around 1804.

2.) The early Native American history of the region that would later become southern Cheatham County, with particular attention to the Indigenous populations who occupied the area from approximately the mid-tenth century A.D. through the mid-fifteenth century. These inhabitants are associated with the Mississippian cultural tradition—often referred to as the “Mound Builders”—who established significant urban centers, most notably at Mound Bottom. This major settlement was connected to another important Mississippian site located several miles to the south, commonly known as the Pack Site. When the Charlotte Road was later constructed, its route was laid directly between these two prominent archaeological sites. References to the Charlotte Road appear in John Haywood’s 1823 work, The Aboriginal and Natural History of Tennessee, several excerpts of which are included in this section.

3.) An examination of the history of Dog Creek, situated in the present-day community of Shacklett in southern Cheatham County, and its close historical association with the Charlotte Road.

4.) The importance of the road as an official United States mail route between Nashville and Memphis upon which the mail was carried beginning as early as 1806 and up until at least the 1850's

 

5.) A section that examines the history of the road in the context of its role as a stagecoach route. Regular stagecoach service between Nashville and Charlotte was established in the late 1820s. Following the chartering of the Charlotte Turnpike Company in 1838, the roadway gained prominence as a primary stage line, facilitating the movement of passengers not only between local settlements but also to destinations across West Tennessee and beyond, including Memphis.

This section explores the often overlooked yet significant factors linking Montgomery Bell to the history of the road and explains the central role the route played in Bell’s commercial success, particularly in relation to his iron forge operations at the Narrows of the Harpeth. The viability and prosperity of the Narrows forge were heavily dependent upon access to a nearby major thoroughfare, especially one that provided the most direct and efficient connection to Nashville. Such a roadway was essential for the transportation of raw materials, equipment, construction supplies, labor, and visitors, as well as for the distribution of finished iron products.

Bell’s association with the road is further underscored by his selection of the remarkably young engineer Samuel Adkisson to assist in the construction of the tunnel at the Narrows of the Harpeth. Between 1818 and 1820, Adkisson—then only fifteen or sixteen years of age—supervised and directed the tunnel’s construction. Long after his professional relationship with Bell had concluded, Adkisson emerged as a prominent figure in regional transportation infrastructure, later identifying himself as a “turnpike builder.” Beginning in the late 1840s, his work on the Charlotte Turnpike, which included the supervision and maintenance of a fifteen-mile segment of the road, positioned him as one of the most influential individuals in the road’s development and alignment, second only to James Robertson in terms of lasting impact.

6.) The Charlotte Turnpike During the Civil War. Prior to the fall of Forts Henry and Donelson in February 1862, the Charlotte Turnpike functioned as a significant supply and transportation route for Confederate forces. Numerous firsthand accounts document military skirmishes and related wartime activity along the road, particularly within the area of present-day southern Cheatham County.

7.) The decline and eventual disappearance of the Charlotte Turnpike as a principal transportation artery through southern Cheatham County unfolded gradually over the course of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, driven by successive transformations in regional transportation infrastructure. The first major blow to the turnpike’s prominence came with the construction of the Nashville & Northwestern Railroad during the 1850s and 1860s. By offering a faster, more reliable, and increasingly cost-effective means of moving both passengers and freight, the railroad redirected a substantial portion of long-distance traffic away from traditional overland routes. As a consequence, traffic along the Charlotte Turnpike declined sharply, eroding toll revenues and undermining the financial stability of the turnpike company, which had depended upon steady usage to sustain road maintenance and operations.

Although the turnpike persisted in a diminished capacity into the late nineteenth century, its ultimate obsolescence was sealed by the rise of automobile transportation and the accompanying construction of modern highways. The development of the Memphis-to-Bristol Highway during the 1910s and 1920s—undertaken as part of Tennessee’s early state highway program and influenced by federal aid initiatives—provided a publicly funded, toll-free route designed to meet contemporary engineering standards. In southern Cheatham County, this new highway either incorporated or bypassed portions of the historic turnpike corridor, rendering the older road increasingly redundant. With the completion of the highway, remaining traffic shifted almost entirely to the improved roadway, effectively eliminating any practical or economic justification for the continued operation of the Charlotte Turnpike. Together, these developments illustrate how successive waves of transportation innovation—first railroads and later automobile highways—collectively brought about the downfall and final demise of the Charlotte Turnpike as a viable thoroughfare.

8.) Lastly, a section displaying various maps of Middle Tennessee, dating from 1826 - 1864, that depict the route of the Nashville - Charlotte Road in varying detail.

Before There Was a Road / Glover's Trace

The following information on early roads in Middle Tennessee comes from a paper titled "Tennessee’s Indigenous Geography" written by Zachary Keith (Middle Tennessee State University July 2020) A link to the entire paper will be given below.

"When waterways failed to provide a quick or direct enough route, individuals were forced to travel over land. Presently interstate highways host the majority of overland automobile traffic. These tend to follow older roads, as they were generally the easiest and most direct routes between two points. The great roads Tennesseans traversed in the 18th and 19th centuries include the Virginia Road in East Tennessee; Boone’s Trace through the Cumberland Gap; the Emory Road connecting Knoxville and Nashville; the Natchez Trace between Nashville and Natchez, Mississippi (touching the Cumberland, Tennessee, and Mississippi Rivers); the federal road connecting Nashville and Chattanooga; and Charlotte Pike (earlier called Glover’s Trace) extending westward from Nashville toward the Tennessee River. All five of these roads and their later iterations on which we still drive today were already in place at the time of white settlement. Most may have begun as buffalo and large game trails until Native groups carved them out of wilderness hundreds or thousands of years before European colonization and used them for travel, trading, and raiding… Glover’s Trace, an early path west from Nashville overlapped the “Lower Harpeth and West Tennessee Trail.” Native groups most likely used this path once again for trading, hunting, or warring between Middle Tennessee and West Tennessee with a more direct route to the Mississippi River."

From - https://jewlscholar.mtsu.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/26a5d9b8-be8f-45fd-b998-bfda94203b9b/content

John Russell's 1794 "Map of the state of Kentucky : with the adjoining territories"

In the 1794 map of Middle Tennessee above, a road or path can clearly be seen leading west out of Nashville to the Tennessee River. This road is labelled as "Glover's Trace". The following information about Glover's Traces comes from an article posted on the website of the Lexington Progress, a newspaper in Henderson County, TN. The article is dated December 2, 2020.

“The western spur of the Natchez Trace, also called the Glover’s Trace or the Old Notchey, was an alternative West Tennessee route of the main trace that went from Natchez, Mississippi, through Middle Tennessee to Nashville. This western spur went through Henderson County and ended at a spot in West Tennessee across the river from the New Johnsonville area. In those days, there was a place to cross and a ferry at a spot called Reynoldsburg.

The route was used at least twice by troops raised by Andrew Jackson during the War of 1812 to return home and was federally surveyed by a group in 1816, who widened the Native American trail, and placed mile markers along the route.”

Link to the website where this information was obtained - https://www.lexingtonprogress.com/2020/12/02/natchez-state-trace-park-museum/

According to Cassandra Carr Cooper, Vice Regent of the Benton County, TN chapter of DAR, the roads name was "derived from an important early route laid out between Nashville and the Western District of Tennessee in 1797, by William Glover, a Native American whose mother was Chickasaw."

James Robertson -

The region that would become north-central Dickson County in 1803 (hereafter referred to as “Dickson County”) was initially explored and settled by some individuals as early as the 1780s. The county was formally established on October 23, 1803, when the Tennessee State Legislature passed a bill creating Dickson County from portions of Robertson and Montgomery Counties. During the 1780s, James Robertson received several thousand acres of land in this area from the State of North Carolina, which at the time governed the western territories. In addition, Robertson purchased substantial tracts of land in the region from North Carolina. Following Tennessee’s admission as a state in 1796, Robertson’s holdings spanned multiple sections of Middle Tennessee; however, his most valuable and strategically significant lands were concentrated in north-central Dickson County. This area of the Tennessee frontier was endowed with abundant natural resources, including significant deposits of iron ore, offering substantial economic potential to landholders engaged in mining and the extraction of raw iron.

Below: Image of the original February 1793 State of North Carolina land grant to James Robertson, assignee of Mary Campbell, heir of James Campbell, a soldier in the Continental Army.) This land, situated on Barton's Creek in what would later become Dickson County, was the site where Robertson established the Cumberland Furnace Iron Works in 1793. At the time, Robertson’s residence lay just west of Nashville, necessitating the use of rudimentary routes extending westward through the intervening wilderness to reach these early settlements approximately forty miles distant. It is probable that as early as the 1780s, Robertson had cut an initial, rudimentary path that would later evolve into the Nashville–Charlotte Road, a route reported to have been completed officially between 1804 and 1806.

The following information comes directly from the grant itself.

Details - State of North Carolina Land Grant

NARRATIVE: James Robertson, Assignee of Mary Campbell, Heir of James Campbell (Military Warrant No. 1274) was issued 640 acres of land on 23 Feb 1793 in TN Tennessee County, located on the "South side of Cumberland River on West fork of Bartons Creek". This was recorded in Land Patent Book 76 page 307 as TN Tennessee County Grant # 1590. The original request for this land was entered on 28 Oct 1784. It took 8 years and 4 months to issue the grant.

Text of the grant:

"Issued 23 Feb 1793 for 640 acres "S. side of Cumberland River on West fork of Bartons Creek"

No 1590 Know ye that we have granted unto James Robertson assignee of James Campbell a private in the Continental line of this State six hundred and forty acres of land in our County of Tennessee on the south side of Cumberland river on the west fork of Bartons creek beginning at an elm and hickory on the bank of the creek on William Blount’s west boundary line runs west three hundred and twenty poles to two black gums and hickory thence south three hundred and twenty poles to a Sugartree on the bank of the creek thence east three hundred and twenty poles to a stake thence north three hundred and twenty poles to the beginning

To hold to the said James Robertson his heirs and assignees forever dated the 23^rd day of February 1793

J Glasgow (North Carolina Secretary of State)

Richard Dobbs Spaight (Governor of North Carolina from December 1792 to November 1795)

One of the principal motivations for Robertson’s acquisition of land in this region was his early recognition that many of the tracts he had been granted or purchased—located approximately forty miles west of Nashville in what would become north-central Dickson County—contained rich deposits of iron ore. On one such tract, Robertson established the Cumberland Furnace Iron Works in 1793, among the first iron forges in Middle Tennessee. It was not until the late 1790s and the early years of the 1800s that Robertson undertook the construction of a roadway through the challenging terrain and wilderness separating his residence in western Nashville from his ironworks near Charlotte. In 1804, Robertson sold the forge to Montgomery Bell.

The image pictured above is of the earliest North Carolina land grant that mentions Dog Creek, dated February 23, 1793. Robertson would later cut a section of the path of the Nashville Charlotte Road alongside Dog Creek. This grant was for a 640 acre tract of land on the Harpeth River "opposite the mouth of Dog Creek". It was issued to Alexander Green and James Robertson, assignees of Thomas Vallentine. An assignee was the person to whom a right or interest in land is transferred by the original holder, the assignor. The following information about this land grant comes from the website "North Carolina Land Grants Images and Data" (link below)

"NARRATIVE: Alexander Green and James Robertson, Assignee of Thomas Vallentine (Military Warrant No. 2697) was issued 640 acres of land on 23 Feb 1793 in TN Davidson County, located "No. side of Harpeth River opposite the mouth of Dog creek". This was recorded in Land Patent Book 76 page 313 as TN Davidson County Grant # 1602."

Below: A zoomed in view of the part of the grant that mentions Dog Creek, which is underlined in red. The way they wrote back in is hard to decipher, but in this image, it says " the west side of Harpeth River opposite the mouth of Dog Creek"

The link to this grant, comes from The North Carolina Land Grant Images And Data Website - https://nclandgrants.com/grant/?mars=12.14.2.1673&qid=1231165&rn=1

This website is quite interesting and easy to use. You just need to create a free account with a username and password, and you can search all of the early North Carolina Land Grants that are now the land in Kingston Springs, Pegram, and the entire South Cheatham County area. For example, you can search for land grants that included the words "Turnbull Creek" or Harpeth River" (See image below of what the site looks like) The link to the website's homepage is: https://nclandgrants.com 

Above: The original roadbed of the Charlotte Road. This photo was taken approximately 1 mile west of Sam's Creek Road, or about a mile and a half east of where Dog Creek Road dead ends today.

Above: The old roadbed of the Nashville - Charlotte Road can still clearly be seen, as shown in this video that I shot in 2016. The roadbed seen in the video was once part of the Turnpike that was located in the area about a mile west of what is today, the intersection of Old Charlotte Pike and Sam's Creek Road, and about one and a half miles east of where Dog Creek Road dead ends today.

The Building of the Road 

By the time Robertson first began cutting the path that the Charlotte Road would take, he was already nearing 60 years old. After he had completed the construction of this road sometime between 1800 - 1804, he named it after his wife, Charlotte Reeves Robertson, to whom he had been married since 1768. Charlotte, the town seat of Dickson County, was also named after Mrs. Robertson.

Below is the oldest map I have been able to find that depicts what I believe to be the Nashville - Charlotte Road. This map was made in 1805.

 The Charlotte Road & The Mound Bottom / Pack Sites

The wilderness through which the road was cut passed directly through lands that had previously been inhabited by various Native American peoples, the first of which having arrived here some 10,000 - 12,000 years ago, and possibly even 13,000 to 14,000 years ago. The area remained continuously inhabited by various Native American societies and cultures for many thousands of years, up until it was suddenly abandoned and completely evacuated by the last of the Native Americans to occupy the land, happening sometime around the late 14th to mid 15th century.

Mound Bottom and the adjacent Pack Sites comprise one of the most archaeologically significant Mississippian-period civic-ceremonial complexes in Middle Tennessee. Occupation of the core at Mound Bottom is generally dated to the Late Woodland–Mississippian transition and the height of Mississippian lifeways (approximately AD 1000–1300), during which time the site developed an organized plan of earthen constructions arrayed around a substantial central plaza. These places functioned as nucleated towns where political, economic, and ritual activities were concentrated, and they form part of a broader landscape of mound centers that mediated regional interaction along the lower Harpeth and Cumberland valleys.

The image shown above comes from a 1940's Nashville newspaper. Crudely drawn, yet still accurate, it depicts the Charlotte Road with Mound Bottom to the north, and the Pack site to the south. Also depicted on this map are Dog Creek, the location of the Dog Creek school house. the road leading to Kingston Springs, and the Bristol Highway.

The Native Americans often known as the "Mound Builders" had consistently occupied the area of Southern Cheatham County that includes both the Mound Bottom & Pack Sites, beginning sometime around the year 950 AD. Their occupation of these sites lasted approximately 500 years or so, up until sometime around 1450 AD. For reasons still unknown, beginning sometime around 1400 AD, these people suddenly and rapidly abandoned their lands and densely populated sites in Middle Tennessee, including Mound Bottom and surrounding sites, within a time span of only a few decades.

Above: Aerial view of Mound Bottom

Several leading theories have been proposed to explain the rapid and widespread evacuation of Native population of the Mound Bottom and Pack Sites. Among the most commonly cited explanations are the following: (1) large-scale warfare or territorial conflicts between neighboring tribes; (2) epidemics of disease to which the Indigenous population had no prior immunity; (3) the potential degradation of agricultural lands due to overuse or mismanagement, rendering the territory increasingly unsuitable for sustaining a stable population; (4) the depletion of natural resources, including a dramatic decline or local extinction of key species such as bison, deer, cougars, and black bears, which had long served as primary sources of food; and (5) possible religious or cultural motivations that influenced patterns of settlement and abandonment.

Following this period, Middle Tennessee remained largely uninhabited by Native Americans for at least two to three centuries. During this interval, the region was utilized primarily as hunting grounds by small, mobile groups from various tribes. These were the Indigenous peoples encountered by the earliest European explorers and settlers in the early to mid-1700s. When questioned, these Native groups possessed no knowledge of the monumental earthworks in the region—such as Mound Bottom—nor of the peoples who had constructed them several centuries earlier. The origins and purpose of these mounds remained as enigmatic to the Indigenous inhabitants encountered by early European settlers as they did to the newcomers themselves.

 The Charlotte Road & Haywood's 1823 History Book 

In 1823, the book "The Natural & Aboriginal History of Tennessee" was published, authored by John "Judge" Haywood, who was "an American jurist and historian known as the Father of Tennessee History." His book was, in part, an attempt to prove that the native tribes of Tennessee were descendants of ancient Hebrews, a popular idea among European Americans in the early 19th century." (Wikipedia)

In his book, Haywood mentions the Charlotte Road and Dog Creek multiple times in the chapter in which he discusses his findings after personally exploring both the Pack and Mound Bottom sites. In particular, he gives a rather detailed physical description of the Mound Bottom site and the surrounding area.

Of the Sun and Moon painted upon rocks -

"About two miles below the road, which crosses Harpeth River, from Nashville to Charlotte, is a bend of the river…About six miles from it is a large rock,, on the side of the river, with a perpendicular face of 70 or 80 feet altitude. On it below the top some distance, and on the side, are painted the sun and moon in yellow colors, which have not faded since the white people first knew it. The figure of the sun is six feet in diameter: The figure of the moon, is of the old moon…The painting on Big Harpeth, before spoken of, is more than 80 feet from the water, and 30 or 40 below the summit…The painting is neatly executed and was performed at an immense hazard of the operator. It must have been for a sacred purpose, and as an object of adoration. What other motive was capable of inciting to a work so perilous, laborious and expensive, as those paintings must have been? By what means (was the skilled artist) let down, and placed near enough to operate? And for what reward did he undertake so dangerous a work?” (pages 113 – 115)

Above: These are two of the best photographs ever taken of Paint Rock. Thanks to the latest drone technology many hard-to-reach archeological sites are now easily accessible via drone.

Haywood was thoroughly fascinated and quite enamored with the Mound Bottom and Pack Sites. He was very enthusiastic and eager to learn as much as he possibly could about these sites. When he wrote his book, he dedicated an entire chapter to the Native American sites in Southern Cheatham County. He gives what is very likely the most detailed and accurate archaeological description of the site that has ever been written. 

He began the section of his book in which he covers Mound Bottom by writing "On the Big Harpeth river, in a bend of the river, below the road which crosses near the mouth of Dog creek, from Nashville to Charlotte, is a square mound, 47 by 47 at the base, twenty-five feet high, and two others in a row with it, of inferior size, from 5 to 10 feet high...The top of this mound was ascended to from the west, where the height is not more than 5 or 6 feet. The platform is 60 feet over. Two large gateways are in the eastern wall. From the most southwardly of them, a road leads to the river and across it in a northwardly direction, near the mouth of Dog creek." (page 129)

He goes on to say that several other ancient roads and paths that were used by the mound builders to travel between their cities were still traceable, including another description of the road that ran from the Mound Bottom complex to the mouth of Dog Creek, where the Charlotte Road crossed the Harpeth. Haywood noted that this road was traceable for miles eastward following a course alongside Dog Creek in the direction of Nashville.

Haywood further states that he could make out the path of another road "leading to the mouth of Dog creek, and traceable for several miles beyond it....Higher up the river, and within a mile of the above-described enclosures, and above the road leading by the mouth of Dog creek to Charlotte, is another bend of the river, so formed as to leave a bend and bottom on the north or opposite side of the river..." (page 130)

This leads me to believe in the likely possibility that Robertson, when choosing the path of his Charlotte Road in this area, some 20 + years prior to the publishing of Haywood's book, took advantage of the still traceable ancient path that had been used by the Mound Builders hundreds of years earlier, as it would have been easier and saved a great deal of work to construct his road along this already existing path rather than cutting out a new one.

Haywood also wrote in the same chapter of his book, that along the old road that was traceable and led up Dog Creek for miles eastward in the direction of Nashville, an ancient Native American grave had been discovered, and that near to this grave, the grave of a dog had also been discovered. He writes, "On the side of the road leading from Nashville to Charlotte, one mile east of Big Harpeth, near the lower part of Mr. Lake's plantation, was a grave, with rocks set up at the feet and head, and containing the bones of a dog. The bones in another grave near it, were human". (page 192)

For a dog to be buried alongside his Native American human master in such fashion, it must have been a dog held in a much higher regard and deserving of even more respect than the average canine; one that must have been much cared for and looked after in order to deserve such an honorable burial. 

Haywood's book "The Natural And Aboriginal History Of Tennessee, Up To The First Settlements Therein By The White People, in the Year 1768"  has been made available to read for free on the Internet Archive website. It can be found at the following link - https://archive.org/details/naturalaborigina00hayw/page/n9/mode/2up

The History of Dog Creek & Its Link to The Charlotte Road 

As long ago as the mid 1800's, the first story that would eventually become the leading theory as to how Dog Creek got its name, began to spread by word of mouth among some lifelong Dog Creek residents. As the story goes, the creek got its name because of a run in between a black bear and a dog, which resulted in the bear killing the dog. If this story has any truth to it, the dog more than likely belonged to one of the first land surveyors who was passing through the area, as the fight is said to have taken place sometime in the 1780's, before there were any permanent settlers in the Dog Creek area. 

At the time, the creek had yet to be named, but it soon became known as the creek where the dog was killed by a bear. Whether or not this is the true story as to how Dog Creek got its name, the person who named it was probably one of the first people to permanently settle along the creek, in the first couple of years of the 1790's.

Several years ago, I uncovered the best and most reliable piece of evidence I have yet to find that best supports this story. It is the oldest document to mention the creek, and the oldest document I have found that uses the title "Dog Creek" to label it: a land grant dated February 23, 1793, issued by the State of North Carolina to two men—Alexander Green and none other than James Robertson himself. Both Green and Robertson were assignees of a man named Thomas Valentine. (See the photo section below for a photo of this land grant.)

Above - 1863 Map depicting the entire route of the Charlotte Turnpike, from Nashville in the east to the town of Charlotte in Dickson County to the west. Click on this map to make it larger. 

In addition to this, in Sarah Foster Kelley's 1987 book, "West Nashville, it's People and Environs", in the chapter in which Kelley discusses the history and genealogy of the families to settle along the Charlotte Turnpike, from West Nashville all the way to Shacklett in Southern Cheatham County, the account of the run in between a bear and a dog is also given as the reason the creek was named Dog Creek. In the section in which Kelley tells of the history of Shacklett, she says "A few miles northwest of Kingston Springs on the present Highway Seventy, North, is the crossing of the Big Harpeth River. A road which leads north connects the Dog Creek Community, also known as Shacklett, named for Doctor Shacklett, and the Narrows of Harpeth settlement. It has been said that a bear killed a dog on a branch which was later called Dog Creek." (page 142-43)

This is where the Charlotte Turnpike crossed Dog Creek, about one hundred yards east of its mouth.

Above: This map shows the location where the Charlotte Road crossed Dog Creek about 100 yards east of the mouth of the creek. Also shown on this map are the paths of Dog Creek (traced in light blue), and the original path of the Charlotte Road (dark blue.)

Going back to Haywood's account of the discovery of the gravesite of the Native American and his canine companion - If not for the many accounts of the story of the unfortunate dog who lost his life somewhere along the creek in a battle against a black bear (a species of animal that was still a common sight here and that still inhabited the woods of Middle Tennessee up until the early - mid 1800's) one might be inclined to believe the creek was so named because of the discovery of the gravesite beside the creek that contained the remains of the ancient Native American and his dog.

The Charlotte Pike & The US Mail

Beginning not long after the road had been completed and the town of Charlotte was established as the seat of the new County of Dickson in 1804, the road was already being used as a route to carry the United States Mail between Nashville, Charlotte, and areas further to the west in Middle Tennessee. It continued to serve as an official United States Mail route from 1806 all the way up until sometime in the 1890's, when the road ceased existing as a turnpike road after the Nashville - Charlotte Turnpike Company was sold to a private individual, which is when the road first became a toll-free road. Below, mail schedule is detailed in a newspaper announcement.

Above - This announcement of the first United States mail routes in Middle Tennessee appeared in the June 14, 1806 edition of The Impartial Review & Cumberland Repository. According to the announcement, the mail route between Nashville and Charlotte was designated as Route 70. The mail ran once a week from Nashville to Charlotte, leaving every Friday at 6 a.m. and arriving in Charlotte six hours later at noon. Curiously it appears that the return trip to Nashville took only five hours, leaving Charlotte at 3 p.m. and arriving at Nashville at 8 p.m.

Above - By 1839, the mail was running three times a week between Nashville and Charlotte. This schedule of the mail is detailed in the Nashville newspaper announcement shown above, dated April 29, 1839.

The Nashville and Charlotte Turnpike Company - The Stagecoach Years

Above: This notice concerning the construction of a portion of the Charlotte Turnpike appeared in a Nashville newspaper on January 30, 1838. It is an announcement by the owners of the Nashville & Charlotte Turnpike Company, in which they state that they will be accepting bids from private contractors for the construction of the section of the turnpike "from the termination of the fifth mile to the top of the hill about one mile beyond Elijah Robertson's." (This would be at the top of Sullivan's Ridge)

In 1838, the Charlotte Road was acquired by the Nashville–Charlotte Turnpike Company, which had been chartered earlier that year. This marked the first instance in which travelers were required to pay a toll to use the roadway. Shortly after the company’s charter, toll booths were constructed at designated points along the Turnpike. Ownership of the company was vested in Jetton, Walker & Co.

Following its conversion to a turnpike in the 1830s, the road became the principal stagecoach route linking Nashville and Charlotte. According to a contemporary advertisement in a Nashville newspaper, stagecoaches departed Nashville every Friday at 6:00 A.M. and arrived in Charlotte by noon, indicating an approximate travel time of six hours over a distance of thirty-six to thirty-eight miles.

About eight - nine years prior to this charter, a December 1829, advertisement in The Arkansas Gazette announced the initiation of stagecoach service between Nashville and Memphis, scheduled to commence in January 1830. Service was to operate three days per week, with coaches drawn by teams of four horses and outfitted in “superior style” for passenger comfort (see image below).

An excerpt from H.W. Crew’s 1890 work, A History of Nashville, Tennessee, provides further context regarding the establishment of turnpike companies and the construction of roads and bridges throughout Davidson County, situating the development of the Charlotte Turnpike within the broader framework of regional transportation infrastructure.

“The Nashville and Charlotte Turnpike Company was chartered somewhere between 1835 and 1840, for the purpose of constructing a turnpike from Nashville towards Charlotte. The road as constructed (as of 1890) is ten miles long, and cost about $60,000.00. It was a very important road previous to the building of the railroads, and it was no uncommon thing to see twenty teams at a time traveling on this pike, as it was the main road leading to Memphis. Since the railroads have come in, this pike has become a mere local road. In 1880 it was purchased very cheaply by A.L. Demoss (who lived in the vicinity of Newsom’s Station). It was sold by him in 1887 to Dr. H.M. Pierce, who afterward turned it over to the West Nashville Land Company, its present (as of 1890) proprietors." (https://nashvillehistory.blogspot.com/2014/07/turnpikes-and-bridges-in-davidson.html?m=1#:~:text=The%20Nashville%20and%20Charlotte%20Turnpike,him%20in%201887%20to%20Dr)