Anyone interested in moving away from the hustle and bustle of the big city
streets and small town traffic woes can find their answer in one of these
smaller Dickson County communities. The rolling hills to the north offer
some of the county's most beautiful landscape, where hunters can find turkeys,
deer, rabbit, squirrel, foxes and more. There is land set aside for hunters,
no matter what hunting season there is, from deer season to duck season,
all your hunting needs will be accommodated.
In 1825, Anthony Wayne Van Leer purchased Cumberland Furnace, an early iron
works community, from Montgomery Bell. His granddaughter, Florence Drouillard,
built the mansion that is visible on the hill in Cumberland Furnace.
Vanleer was incorporated in 1915. It was located on a railroad that ran
from Pond Switch to Gracie, Ky. The railroad passed through several of the
communities of the area, including Sylvia, Vanleer and Slayden, and there
was a spur at Cumberland Furnace to pick up iron ore.
One of the earliest enterprises of Vanleer was the shipment of ripened peaches
by iced rail car to New York, Cincinnati and other northern cities. The peaches
were grown in a 60-acre orchard owned by Messrs. Trahern, Outlaw and Eubanks.
Norman Eubanks eventually organized the Peoples Bank of Vanleer in 1906.
Slayden was named for
the prominent Slayden family that resided in the Cumberland Furnace and
Woods Valley area of Dickson County. Dr. John Slayden
served
for a period of time as a physician at Cumberland Furnace. The community
was incorporated in 1913 and was Tennessee’s smallest municipality
for many years.
Organized at the intersection
of the railroad and the Charlotte to Palmyra road, the community’s
citizens were primarily engaged in the timber business. Huge stands of
white oaks provided cross-ties for the railroad
and the oaks and other hardwoods provided raw materials used in the iron
industry which was thriving in nearby Cumberland Furnace. The leading businessman
of Slayden was Robert H. McFall who owned a general store, the Slayden
Bank and was noted for his acquisitions of timber from Lone Oak in Montgomery
County to Sparta in White County.
