The original town site that became Dexter was laid out in July 1873 by the Cairo, Arkansas, and Texas Railroad (CAT).  Colonel Henry J. Deal of Charleston was contracted to build the railroad bed and track through Stoddard County west to Poplar Bluff.  In March 1873 Deal advertised in newspapers for 3,000 workers to paid sixteen to twenty-five cents an hour. Deal purchased eighteen acres of land located where Dex Creek and the Bloomfield Road intersected, this was where the railroad planned to go through.