Decherd owes its beginning to the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad
which complete trackage in 1851. The town was named for Peter S.
Decherd, who gave the rights-of-way to the railroad company with
the provision that a depot be located near the “Decherd Plantation”.
At one point there were eight passenger trains stoppeing at the
Decherd Depot daily. It became the terminal for branch lines going
to Huntsville, Alabama, Fayetteville, Lewisburg, and Columbia Tennessee.
Today the depot is gone, along with the passenger trains.
During the Civil War, Federals drove a Confederate force from Decherd
and destroyed about 300 yards of railroad between Dechard and Cowan.
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