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History · Goree

Goree’s post office opened in 1888, and 17% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: maps from 1968 on and the census since 1920.

1888first post office
0on the National Register
17%homes built before 1940
1famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory
Quick answers

How Goree began

When was Goree founded?

1888

The Goree post office opened in 1888, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 614 in 19202020 census: 158138 years
Founding year: the first Goree post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Goree’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 Goree are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Old housesHalf of Goree’s homes were built before 1963.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Goree’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Goree’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 Goree came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Goree.

Read it all →

Settlers first arrived in the area around 1886. By 1887, a settlement was centered around a store and post office built by Bill Benedict. Originally known as Riley Springs, the community was renamed Goree after Robert D. Goree, a Confederate veteran and Knox County pioneer. Benedict's store was bought by J.W. McLendon in 1890; he moved it with its post office to a new site that became known as North Goree. A school was built near the relocated store in 1901. In 1904, North Goree was renamed Hefner.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Goree, 1888 to 1968

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1888Post officeThe Goree post office opens
  3. 20th century
  4. 1913Born hereTex Thornton is born here
  5. 1968On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
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.

Be the first to add onePhotograph a print flat, in daylight, no flash.
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On the map

Goree on the map, 1968 to 1985

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

Goree on the 1968 USGS mapGoree on the 1985 USGS map1968Munday East 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 Goree.

People over time

Goree, census by census

0100200300400500600700192019401960198020002020Peak: 640

Between 158 and 640 people in every census since 1920.

11 censuses, 1920–2020.

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

Questions about Goree’s history

What year was Goree founded?

The Goree post office opened in 1888, 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, 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.