In the early settlement of Henderson County an area in the northern section of the county became one of the best developed communities in the region. A post office, Pleasant Exchange, was established there in 1826 and a village grew up around the post office bearing its name. It is bounded on the north by Carroll, on the south by McNairy and Hardin, on the east by Perry, and on the west by Madison. It is watered by Forked Deer, Beech, and Sandy rivers.
Beech river runs east through the centre of the county, past Lexington, the seat of justice.
There is a post office at Pleasant Exchange. It is a thriving county, and contained a population in 1830 of 8,741. Dr. Parker was a practicing physician and a Baptist preacher who was frequently called Elder or Reverend Parker. It was only in 1837 that a post office was established in this immediate neighborhood, its postmaster being one of the Parkers and it is quite likely the post office itself was located close to Dr. Parker's residence, in a storehouse kept by some of his family at the cross roads. Several of his sons were merchants.