William Dickson (congressman)

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Dr. William Dickson was a United States congressman in the early 1800s. He was born in Duplin County, North Carolina on May 5, 1770 and was educated at Grove Academy in Kenansville. With his parents, he moved to Tennessee in 1795 to study and practice medicine as a physician in Nashville. In 1799, he entered politics, becoming the Speaker of the Tennessee House of Representatives until 1801. Afterward, he served as a U.S. representative for Tennessee until 1807, becoming a friend of President Andrew Jackson in the meantime. He was a trustee of the University of Nashville from 1806 to 1816. He died in Nashville during February 1816, and was buried in a cemetery near Nashville. Dickson County in Tennessee is named after him.