Goodspeed's History of Maury City, Tennessee — Founding and Early Commerce

Maury City was laid off in 1876 by Samuel Alexander and Samuel Killebrew on land belonging to J. S. Claybrooks and J. N. Perry, as recorded in Goodspeed's History of Tennessee. Commerce arrived even before the town's formal survey: Perry & Balch had already opened the first store the year before, in 1875.

Industry followed quickly. In 1877, Robertson & Perry built a large steam-powered flour, grist, and sawmill combined with a cotton gin, at a cost of eight thousand dollars — a substantial investment for a town barely a year old. By 1880, Maury City's business district had grown to include Balch & Robertson, Perry & Perry, Hamlett & Tucker, Nunn & Revell, Perry & Carter, J. B. Tucker, and J. N. Albritton, running groceries, dry goods, drug stores, and saloons.

A frame schoolhouse went up in 1880 at a cost of roughly eight hundred dollars. At the time Goodspeed's history was published in 1887, Maury City had no dedicated church building yet, though the local Missionary Baptist congregation already owned a lot and had a house under contract. Sitting in the county's Tenth Civil District, Maury City counted a population of two hundred that same year.