After some twenty years of searching, a local historian has uncovered the nearly-lost community of Irby in Putnam County.
Archivist Glenn Jones said he has searched for 96 unincorporated towns in Putnam County based on former post office locations. Jones said Irby went missing when the post offices consolidated. Jones said the county commemorated the finding with signage and historical markers.
“Well, when you find these areas and erect a sign, then other people that knew something about that might come forward and tell somebody,” Jones said. “And then, from now on, all the young people that see that sign can remember that that was Irby.”
Jones said people have been looking for Irby since the 1920s. Jones said records show Irby was the site of the first Blackburn stand, which protected traveling settlers from Native American attacks.
Jones said this is significant because of connections to other landmarks.
“It had a road to get to it, and a road from there to Fort Blount at the Cumberland River in Jackson County,” Jones said. “And from that, it went on to Nashville. This was in 1788. The country had just started, right after the Revolutionary War. This was North Carolina when that fort was there in the Irby area, so we’re talking history before we even had the state of Tennessee.”
Jones said some friends helped him track down the site of the Irby Post Office.
“I was talking to one of my friends, Gary Bradford,” Jones said. “And he told me he knew exactly where the post office was on that road, North Pine Hill Road. He did a little more research, and then, a lady in Baxter, Angela Stout, showed me how to look up original applications for the post office when they first opened.”
Jones said Irby’s post office application was for a town called Blackburn, and the U.S. Post Office in Washington renamed the town “Irby” when they reviewed it.
Jones then consulted another friend, who found the deed for the Blackburn stand. Jones said records confirmed the stand’s place in Irby, and it was a few thousand feet from the post office.
