In 1819 the Tennessee Legislature created the first three counties that encompassed land west of the Tennessee River. One of these, Perry County, included most of what is today Decatur County. Early settlers, moving from Virginia and North Carolina, crossed the Tennessee River into the western part of Perry County in search for land and a place to settle. One area that caught early attention was near a small creek flowing south from springs and a drain basin to a larger stream known today as Beech River.

Around 1880 a young man named George Washington Partin left home in Ringgold, Georgia in a horse-drawn buggy and headed northwest into Tennessee to sell sewing machines. Eventually his travels led him to Decatur County where me met and married Margaret "Maggie" Rushing. Partin and his new bride were attracted to the Bear Creek area and thought it would be a good place to live and start a town.'. He purchased a number of acres on the Perryville-Lexington dirt road near the present Bear Creek church building and opened a large general store that went over big. His success attracted others and soon two cotton gins and a doctor's office were added to the community.

Since there was no post office nearby application to establish a post office for the new town was submitted to Washington. The proposed post office would serve 575 persons. The post office, to be called Partinville, was approved and on November 13, 1885 George W. Partin became the first postmaster in the town which bore his name. But coming events would soon prove fatal to the new town.

In 1886 the Tennessee Midland Railroad Company (TMRC) received a charter to build a railroad from Memphis across Tennessee to the Virginia State line. In 1889 the railroad was completed from Memphis to the Tennessee River at Perryville where it ended. The railroad missed Partinville about one mile to the south. But the big blow came when the new railroad agreed to build a depot one mile east of Partinville on land owned by Henry Myracle. In order to get a town started on his land, Mr. Myracle deeded one hundred forty three and one-third acres to the (TMRC). The railroad company engineer drew the plans for lots and streets on land owned by both Myracle and (TMRC) and the town of Parsons was about to begin.

George W. Partin, seeing the handwriting on the wall, immediately prepared to move to the new town. On April 20,1889 he purchased the first lot sold in the new town and on August 19, 1889 bought nearby Buckner land and shortly thereafter tore his store building down at Partinville and moved his business to the new town.

The fateful day came on May 7, 1897 when the post office officially moved to Parsons. Partinville, the forerunner to Parsons was now history.