Newbern, TN

Newbern is a Dyer County town of 3,349 people at the 2020 census, laid across the flat country of western Tennessee. The first settlers arrived in the 1840s, and local history credits Owen Philly with building the first house and store. He is also believed to have named the town for New Bern, North Carolina, his birthplace. That connection to the East Coast is still part of the town's story, carried west by families traveling into the newly settled lands of Tennessee.

Railroad traffic reshaped Newbern. The Chesapeake and Ohio completed a Memphis-to-Newbern line in 1882, then Illinois Central took over operation and the depot in 1895. By 1920, the combination depot was a major cotton and livestock shipping point for Dyer County. U.S. 51 runs through downtown, while the depot, churches, local businesses, and school life fill in the town's everyday landmarks. Newbern has the feel of a road-and-rail town whose first store and later depot still tell you why it sits here.