RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Iowa >> O'Brien County >> PhilbyIndex...

Welcome to Philby ...

Philby is located in O'Brien County<1>.

While we don't have a date for the founding of Philby, you might consider that their post office opened in 1898.

Philby is 1,410 feet [430 m] above sea level.<2>.

Time Zone: Philby lies in the Central Time Zone (CST/CDT) and observes daylight saving time

Area Code for Philby: 712

Communities near Philby ...

We have created a list of 10 communities that are near Philby.

  • Sioux Center
    (18 miles [29 km] to the west)
  • Orange City
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the west)
  • Sheldon
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
  • Hull
    (18 miles [29 km] to the northwest)
    • Hull is located in Sioux County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hull
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 2,296 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Hull <3>
  • Remsen
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southwest)
  • Hartley
    (18 miles [29 km] to the northeast)
    • Hartley is located in O'Brien County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hartley
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,556 people
  • Sanborn
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northeast)
  • Alton
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southwest)
  • Marcus
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the south)
  • Paullina
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
    • Paullina is located in O'Brien County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Paullina
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 965 people

To Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

We have a couple of sections for those tracing their genealogy.

We created a list of cemeteries that are in the area around Philby. Our list includes the location of those cemeteries and we provide an overhead view. See our Cemetery List for Philby.

Using the information from an 1895 Atlas, we've created a list of communities that were in the area of Philby. Our list includes information such as whether the 1895 community had a post office or railroad service. See our List of 1890's Communities around Philby.

We also have a detailed list of newspapers that have been published in the area around Philby. See our Newspapers Page for Philby.

TripAdvisor Tourism Pages for Philby ...

Looking for more information about Philby? A wonderful source is the TripAdvisor website. We always start with the TripAdvisor Tourism page, where you can read an overview with links that will help you find lodging, restaurants and attractions.

While we are unaware of a Tourism page that is specific to Philby, there are neighboring communities that do have Tourism pages. A map of those communities can be found with our TripAdvisor Page for Philby.

Adding Philby to Our Gazetteer ...

We originally found mention of Philby in both the FIPS-55 and the GNIS. For more information, see the FIPS and GNIS Codes sections on our Miscellaneous Page.

From our notes, the earliest published mention we've found (so far) for Philby was in the document titled List of Post Offices from Cameron Blevins and Richard Helbock.<4>

From that list, the Philby post office opened in 1898. The Philby post office closed in 1904.

For more details, see References and Mentions for Philby.

Footnotes ...

<1>If you're interested in how the shape of Iowa's counties, including O'Brien, have changed over time, we recommend the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.
<2>The elevation is an estimate for the area around Philby - it will be higher in some places and lower in others.
<3>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<4>A copy of the Blevins & Helbock Post Office list with background information can be found at:

      https://cblevins.github.io/us-post-offices/data-biography/