The Goodspeed Publishing Co., History of Tennessee, 1887
Biographical Sketches, Shelby County

I Surnames

Harrison Irby, an old and valuable citizen of Colliersville, Tenn., was born in Virginia, February 16,1818, and is a son of William H. and Sarah (Glass) Irby, who were both natives of Virginia; the father was raised, educated and married in that State. Four sons and five daughters were born to this marriage, our subject being the youngest child.  The father immigrated to Alabama in 1826, and settled ten miles northeast of Huntsville, on Flint River, where he followed farming until his death in 1841.  The mother died in Virginia, when our subject was but a year old. Harrison Irby was raised on a farm, and received but a limited education. In 1838 he enlisted in the volunteer service, whose duty was to collect the Cherokee Indians in northern Alabama, and assist in their transfer to the Indian Territory.  He married in Madison County, Ala., December 13, 1838, Miss M.J. Moore, daughter of James C. Moore, a farmer and native of North Carolina; seven of the eleven children born to this marriage are living.  Mrs. Irby was born in North Carolina, March 29, 1818.  Mr. Irby moved to Tennessee in 1851 and settled two miles northwest of Colliersville. In 1866 he moved to Colliersville and with Dr. Virginius Leake bought ninety acres of land where the town now stands, and divided it into lots in September of the same year; this took the town from its old site on the State line road, as it was called, to the present site on the Charleston & Memphis Railroad.  Mr. Irby has served his district as magistrate and constable, and the county as deputy sheriff, from 1853 until a few years ago. He is a Democrat and a Mason, and was a member of the I.O.O.F. until the lodge ceased to exist. Mr. and Mrs. Irby are both members of the Presbyterian Church. Since the war he has been merchandising under the firm name of Waddy, Revell & Co., but in 1875 placed his son in the business and retired. He owns 1,100 acres of land in the vicinity of Colliersville, the home place of twenty-one acres being within the corporation. Mr. Irby is a man of fine morals and good social position.