Do you know of West Fork ???
This page is an orphan - a placeholder until we can discover more about West Fork. When we encounter a name that is new to us, we add it to our Gazetteer with the hope that we'll discover more information in the future. Such is the case with West Fork.
Our sources for West Fork (see Mentions and References below) indicate that it was a community with a post office by the same name. Unfortunately our sources aren't clear about the location of West Fork other than they indicate that West Fork would be found somewhere in Overton County, Tennessee.
From the Blevins / Hellbock List: The post office opened in 1840 and closed in 1932.
This entry could have originated in error. It might be that a source had a misprint, was simply wrong or we made a transcription error while referencing it. Many of the documents we reference are from the 1800s and the early 1900s, with some easier to read than others.
Part of the difficulty in identifying whether a name is a post office or a community lies with how Post Offices were named. We've prepared an article with our understanding of how post offices were named: Naming of Post Offices.
Communities Also Named West Fork ...
We found twelve communities that share the name West Fork.
Within Tennessee, the name West Fork is unique.
Beyond Tennessee, we know of another twelve communities that are located throughout in the United States.
- Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
- Arkansas
- Washington County
- Please visit our profile page for the Arkansas community of West Fork [Washington County].
- Delaware
- Indiana
- Crawford County
- Please visit our profile page for the Indiana community of West Fork [Crawford County].
- Kentucky
- Allen County
- Please visit our profile page for the Kentucky community of West Fork [Allen County].
- Christian County
- We found mention of this community, but have little information.<1> For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Kentucky community of West Fork [Christian County].
- Missouri
- Reynolds County
- Please visit our profile page for the Missouri community of West Fork [Reynolds County].
- Montana
- Daniels County
- Please visit our profile page for the Montana community of West Fork [Daniels County].
- Oregon
- South Dakota
- Haakon County
- Please visit our profile page for the South Dakota community of West Fork [Haakon County].
- Virginia
- Pittsylvania County
- Please visit our profile page for the Virginia community of West Fork [Pittsylvania County].
- Washington
- Ferry County
- Please visit our profile page for the Washington community of West Fork [Ferry County].
- West Virginia
- Arkansas
Miscellaneous References and Mentions for West Fork ...
We've created the following list to keep track of the sources that proved useful in adding to our knowledge about West Fork:
Found in a comprehensive list of Post Offices that was created by Cameron Blevins and Richard Helbock.<2>
Business Atlas and Shippers' Guide (1895)
Published by Rand McNally & Co.
A note taken from the Shipper's Guide for West Fork - Services available: had a Post Office, Railroad Station
List of Post Offices in the United States (1870)
Published by the Government Printing Office
Table of U.S. Post Offices in the United States (Jan. 1851)
Published by W. & J.C. Greer, Printers
U.S. Post Offices (Oct. 1846)
Published by John T. Towers
Rand McNally Map of Tennessee (1888)
Published by Rand McNally & Co.
The FIPS database contains an entry for West Fork.
Referenced FIPS Records ...
FIPS Code: 47/79140 (Place Name: West Fork)
County: Overton (FIPS State/County: 47/133)
Class: U8
Identifies a populated place (in this case, West Fork) located wholly or substantially outside the boundaries of an incorporated place or CDP (Census Designated Place) but whose name has not been verified as authoritative by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).
More Orphans in Overton County ...
Can you help?
As we explained above, when we encounter a name that might be a community or a post office we add it to our Gazetteer. If we have little information to go with the name, we call them Orphans. Below are Orphans that we believe to be located in Overton County.
| France | |
| Standing Stone | |
| Garrott | Summer Shade |
| Sycamore Grove | |
| Locust Shade | |
| Walnut Grove | |
| Netherland |
Footnotes ...
| <1> | If we encounter the name of what might be a community, our methodology is to add that name to our Gazetteer as a placeholder. As we find more information about that community, it will be added to our Gazetteer. Just as a reminder: Our definition of a community is rather broad and includes those places (or areas) where several families lived and had a name which identified that place. For example, you might hear somebody say that they are going over to Bird Creek to see Pete ... Bird Creek is just a gas station and a couple of homes at the crossroads. While it might not be on the map, everybody in the area knows it by that name. Places of interest include buildings at a crossroad, several families clustered in a hollow or maybe the location of a way station. It also includes places like mines, lumber camps, ferry crossings, etc. The community might still exist, is now gone or only existed for just a short period of time. Also keep in mind that West Fork could have been on the original document by mistake, misspelled, the original/alternate name of a community that we've listed elsewhere or was placed in the wrong county. Sometimes a post office or train station would have a different name than the community where it's located, so two names might be referring to the same community - we're working to straighten it all out. |
| <2> | A copy of their list with background information can be found at: https://cblevins.github.io/us-post-offices/data-biography/ |