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History · Puryear

Puryear’s post office opened in 1913

Most of Puryear was built recently: 4% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1972.

1913first post office
0on the National Register
4%homes built before 1940
1famous people
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Quick answers

How Puryear began

When was Puryear founded?

1913

The Puryear post office opened in 1913, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Peryear (1891), opened inside today’s city and later closed.

2020 census: 706113 years
Founding year: the first Puryear post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Puryear’s past

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

A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Puryear are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.
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Start Puryear’s collection

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

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
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The story

How Puryear came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Puryear.

Read it all →

Puryear was originally named Littleton in honor of James T. Littleton, a farmer and Confederate States Army veteran who donated a portion of his land to the Paducah, Tennessee and Alabama Railroad to use as a right of way. Its name was changed to Puryear at the suggestion of Littleton's son, James Graves Littleton, when the Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway took control of the railroad and mandated it be changed so as not to conflict with the name of either a town in Georgia or Littleton, North Carolina.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Puryear, 1891 to 2000

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1891Post officeThe Peryear post office opens
  3. 20th century
  4. 1913Post officeThe Peryear post office closes
  5. 1913Post officeThe Puryear post office opens
  6. 21st century
  7. 2000Born hereByron Gallimore is born here
By decade

No old photos in the archives yet

Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.

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Places that used to be

Lost post offices

Puryear’s post office has been open since 1913. Another post office, Peryear, opened and closed inside today’s town.

Peryear
1891–1913
Puryear
1913–today
18901960today

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

Questions about Puryear’s history

What year was Puryear founded?

The Puryear post office opened in 1913, 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 →
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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 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.