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History · Cosby

Cosby’s post office opened in 1860, and 1 of its places is on the National Register

Most of Cosby was built recently: 2% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1993. Its Register listing is the Laurel Springs Primitive Baptist Church. Below: 2 old photos and papers.

1860first post office
1on the National Register
2%homes built before 1940
2old photos & papers
1famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Cosby’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers

How Cosby began

When was Cosby founded?

1860

The Cosby post office opened in 1860, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Hackletooth (1858), opened inside today’s town and later closed.

2020 census: 807166 years
Founding year: the first Cosby post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Cosby’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenOnly 2 old photos are in the public archives. The rest are in attics and albums.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Cosby’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Cosby’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Date a photo2 archive items have no date. Guess the decade.+2Retake an old viewChandler Jenkins Cabin, Indian Camp Road: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
The story

How Cosby came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Cosby.

Read it all →

For centuries, lands along the northern rim of the Great Smokies, including Cosby, were used primarily as hunting grounds by the Cherokee. The first European settlers arrived in what is now Cocke County in the early 1780s. Among these settlers were John Gilliland (c. 1725-1798), who settled near the mouth of the Pigeon River, Peter Fine (1753–1826), who established Fine's Ferry at what is now Newport, and a small colony of German immigrants from Pennsylvania, who settled in what became known as the Dutch Bottoms area. Samuel Odell (c. 1750-1789) was probably the first to settle in the Cosby Creek valley.

ChaptersEarly history19th centuryEarly 20th centuryMoonshiningModern day

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Cosby, 1858 to 1914

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1858Post officeThe Hackletooth post office opens
  3. 1860Post officeThe Hackletooth post office closes
  4. 1860Post officeThe Cosby post office opens
  5. 20th century
  6. 1914Born hereCharles L. McGaha is born here
By decade

Cosby, decade by decade

Date unknown2 to date
Chandler Jenkins Cabin, Indian Camp RoadDate?Chandler Jenkins Cabin, Indian Camp RoadWhite Rock Lookout Tower, On Mount Cammerer near the Appalachian TrailDate?White Rock Lookout Tower, On Mount Cammerer near the …
Today1 recent
Cosby22007Cosby2
Then & now

Stand where they stood

No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.

Chandler Jenkins Cabin, Indian Camp Road
Retake this viewChandler Jenkins Cabin, Indian Camp Road

Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Cosby’s page.

Retake this view · +15
On the National Register

1 historic place in Cosby

The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.

place listed
1
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
2
each building in a district counts
first listed
2021
Laurel Springs Primitive Baptist Church
Laurel Springs Primitive Baptist Church
Buildings
All 1 listings
Laurel Springs Primitive Baptist ChurchBuilding · listed 2021

National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.

Places that used to be

Lost post offices, old corners, places now gone and burying grounds

Cosby’s post office has been open since 1860. Another post office, Hackletooth, opened and closed inside today’s town.

Hackletooth
1858–1860
Cosby
1860–today
18501940today
Hamlets and corners on the map
Jenkins Mill
Gone or out of use
Liberty SchoolschoolWebb Springs Schoolschool
1cemetery inside Cosby
Valentine

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

Questions about Cosby’s history

What year was Cosby founded?

The Cosby post office opened in 1860, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

What is on the National Register in Cosby?

One place: the Laurel Springs Primitive Baptist Church (listed 2021).

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
Start a conversation
Sources

Where this page comes from

Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →

From Wikimedia Commons (1), the Library of Congress (2), the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.