Most of Hornsby was built recently: 4% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1976. Below: maps from 1950 on and the census since 1930.
Before 1820, Dr. Daniel Smith Webb started a gristmill and sawmill along the Little Hatchie River in Wade Creek Valley. The area would come to be known as Webb's Mill, and in the 1820s, Joel and William Crain, two Revolutionary veterans, moved to the area and founded a port and supply depot near Webb's Mill. The area would eventually have a two churches, a subscription school, a stagecoach stop and an inn between Bolivar and Purdy. This town would be called Crainville. Crainville would become a railroad town in the early 1900s and a new train depot was built by the Gulf, Mobile and Northern Railroad on a farm owned by Kimborough Hornsby. An artesian well was drilled in 1915 near the depot and was the first of its kind in the United States. On October 16, 1920, Hornsby's charter was written and a new government was formed. The first home was built by Finley Holyfield in 1919 and by 1923 …
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 Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), 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.
