Fulton County was formed in 1845 out of Hickman County. It was part of the Jackson Purchase acquired from the Chickasaw Indians in 1818. The county was named for Robert Fulton, whose Clermont, the best known of the early steamboats, went up the Hudson River in 1807. The far western part of the county, known as Madrid Bend, is separated from the rest by a bend of the Mississippi River. Hickman, the county seat, was founded as Mills' Point in 1834.