One of the first settlers to Dixie, located east of Cooksville along Dundas Street, was Philip Cody, who arrived in 1806.
He built and operated an inn and tavern on the southeast corner of Dundas Street and Cawthra Road. Joseph and Jane Silverthorne, the first visitors to the inn, completed Cherry Hill, their second home in 1822. This house is now a restaurant and stands at its new location on Silvercreek Boulevard.
The village, which developed around a government-owned toll booth, was named in 1865 after Dr. Beaumont Dixie, a well-known local doctor. Dr. Dixie had donated money to the Union Chapel, a non-denominational Protestant place of worship which was central to the social and cultural life of the village.
The Dixie Union Cemetery, established in 1812, is the final resting place of many of Mississauga's pioneers and even of a premier of the Province of Ontario - Thomas Laird Kennedy. The home of Jane and Joseph Silverthorn, who arrived in 1807, survives as a local restaurant today . It is still called "Cherry Hill" after the family estate which once occupied most of what is now the Mississauga Valleys subdivision.