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History · Minor Hill

Minor Hill’s post office opened in 1870, and 19% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1936 on, and the census since 1880.

1870first post office
0on the National Register
19%homes built before 1940
1old photo or paper
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Minor Hill’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers

How Minor Hill began

When was Minor Hill founded?

1870

The Minor Hill post office opened in 1870, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Shoal Springs (1844), opened inside today’s city and later closed.

First census: 31 in 18802020 census: 504156 years
Founding year: the first Minor Hill post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Minor Hill’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 1 old photo is in the public archives. The rest are in attics and albums.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Minor Hill’s collection

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

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
1 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Retake an old viewMinor-Hill-horse-carriage-1900-tn1: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
The story

How Minor Hill came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Minor Hill.

Read it all →

Minor Hill is named for Joseph Minor, an early settler in the area. A later owner of the Minor tract donated part of it for the establishment of a school, church, and cemetery in the mid-19th century. A post office was established in 1870, and the city incorporated that same year.

On November 19, 1863, during the Civil War, Confederate scout Sam Davis was captured on Minor Hill. He was taken to Pulaski, where he was executed eight days later. A monument to Davis now stands in Minor Hill at the site where he was captured.

Noted gospel song book publisher James David Vaughan published his first song book in Minor Hill in 1900. Vaughan and three of his brothers performed as a gospel quartet throughout the region.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Minor Hill, 1844 to 1936

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1844Post officeThe Shoal Springs post office opens
  3. 1856Post officeThe Shoal Springs post office closes
  4. 1870Post officeThe Minor Hill post office opens
  5. 20th century
  6. 1900In the archiveMinor-Hill-horse-carriage-1900-tn1
  7. 1936On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

Minor Hill, decade by decade

One decade in the archive so far: the 1900s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1900s1 item
Minor-Hill-horse-carriage-1900-tn11900Minor-Hill-horse-carriage-1900-tn1
1910s–1990snothing yet
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Add from your album
Today11 recent
Tennessee-Alabama-state-line-11-207-tn12016Tennessee-Alabama-state-line-11-207-tn1State-Line-Lounge-tn12016State-Line-Lounge-tn1Sam-Davis-monument-Minor-Hill-tn12016Sam-Davis-monument-Minor-Hill-tn1Minor-Hill-water-tower-tn12016Minor-Hill-water-tower-tn1Minor-Hill-post-office-tn12016Minor-Hill-post-office-tn1Minor-Hill-old-buildings-tn12016Minor-Hill-old-buildings-tn1Minor-Hill-Library-tn12016Minor-Hill-Library-tn1Minor-Hill-Hwy-11-tn22016Minor-Hill-Hwy-11-tn2Minor-Hill-Hwy-11-tn12016Minor-Hill-Hwy-11-tn1Minor-Hill-City-Park-tn12016Minor-Hill-City-Park-tn1Minor-Hill-City-Hall-tn12016Minor-Hill-City-Hall-tn1
On the map

Minor Hill on the map, 1936 to 1988

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Minor Hill. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Minor Hill on the 1936 USGS mapMinor Hill on the 1948 USGS mapMinor Hill on the 1950 USGS mapMinor Hill on the 1988 USGS map1936Appleton sheet · 1:24,000

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Minor Hill.

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.

Minor-Hill-horse-carriage-1900-tn1
Retake this viewMinor-Hill-horse-carriage-1900-tn1, 1900

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

Retake this view · +15
People over time

Minor Hill, census by census

010020030040050060018801900192019401960198020002020Peak: 564

Between 31 and 564 people in every census since 1880.

7 censuses, 1880–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Minor Hill’s Wikipedia page.

Famous people

Famous people close to Minor Hill

Nobody well known was born in Minor Hill itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.

See all →
Michael JeterAmerican actor · b. 1952
John B. CalhounAmerican ethologist and behavioral researcher · b. 1917
John Crowe RansomAmerican poet · b. 1888
B
Brittany HowardAmerican singer · b. 1988
D
Don BlackAmerican white nationalist · b. 1953
Melba MontgomeryAmerican musician · b. 1938
Places that used to be

Lost post offices, places now gone and burying grounds

Minor Hill’s post office has been open since 1870. Another post office, Shoal Springs, opened and closed inside today’s town.

Shoal Springs
1844–1856
Minor Hill
1870–today
18401930today
Gone or out of use
Bullington StorelocaleMinor Hill SchoolschoolSugar SpringlocaleThomas Storelocale
1cemetery inside Minor Hill
Minor Hill

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

Questions about Minor Hill’s history

What year was Minor Hill founded?

The Minor Hill post office opened in 1870, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

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 (12), 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.