[4] The Yuchi left the region in the 1700s[5] and the Cherokee were forcibly relocated in the late 1830s by the United States government in the Trail of Tears.

[6] The current community was founded by and named for Colonel Charles Ready, an early settler who arrived in the area in 1802.

[9] The following year, while mayor of Murfreesboro, he constructed the Readyville Mill on the east fork of Stones River in Cannon County.

[10] The mill was destroyed in a fire of unknown origin during the American Civil War, rebuilt in the 1870s, and added to the National Register of Historic Places on June 12, 1973.

The bulk of the downtown area was heavily damaged or destroyed, including the Readyville Mill, Charles Ready House, post office, market, and numerous homes.