Puryear is a city in Henry County,

Tennessee Tennessee (, ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina t ...

, United States. The population was 671 at the 2010 census.

History

Puryear was originally named Littleton in honor of James T. Littleton, a farmer and

Confederate States Army The Confederate States Army (CSA), also called the Confederate army or the Southern army, was the Military forces of the Confederate States, military land force of the Confederate States of America (commonly referred to as the Confederacy) duri ...

veteran who donated a portion of his land to the Paducah, Tennessee and Alabama Railroad to use as a right of way. Its name was changed to Puryear at the suggestion of Littleton's son, James Graves Littleton, when the

Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway The Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway was a Rail transport company, railway company that operated in the U.S. states of Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It began as the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad, ...

took control of the railroad and mandated it be changed so as not to conflict with the name of either a town in Georgia or

Littleton, North Carolina Littleton is a town in Halifax County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 674 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina Micropolitan Statistical Area. History Littleton was named after William Little, ...

Geography

Puryear is located in northern Henry County at (36.444853, -88.333770).

U.S. Route 641 U.S. Route 641 (US 641) is a U.S. Route in Tennessee and Kentucky. It runs for from US 64 south of Clifton, Tennessee to an intersection with US 60 in Marion, Kentucky. While it is considered a spur route of U.S. Route 41, t ...

passes through the east side of the city, leading north to

Hazel, Kentucky Hazel is a home rule-class city in Calloway County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 410 at the 2010 census. Geography Hazel is located in southern Calloway County at (36.504658, −88.325443). It is north of Paris, Tennessee, an ...

, and south to

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, the Henry

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...

. Tennessee State Route 140 passes through the center of Puryear, leading east to

U.S. Route 79 U.S. Route 79 (US 79) is a United States highway in the Southern United States. The route is officially considered and signed as a north–south highway, but its path is actually more of a diagonal northeast–southwest highway. The highway's n ...

near Paris Landing State Park on

Kentucky Lake Kentucky Lake is a major navigable river, navigable reservoir along the Tennessee River in Kentucky and Tennessee. It was created in 1944 by the Tennessee Valley Authority's impounding of the Tennessee River via Kentucky Dam for flood control a ...

, and west to SR 69 near Jones Mill. According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...

, Puryear has a total area of , all land. The

Tennessee Valley Divide The Tennessee Valley Divide is the boundary of the drainage basin of the Tennessee River and its tributaries. The Tennessee River drainage basin begins with its tributaries in southwestern Virginia and flows generally west to the confluence of t ...

runs along the western edge of the city; most of Puryear drains north via the East Fork of the

Clarks River The Clarks River, named for William Clark of the 1804-1806 Lewis and Clark Expedition, is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed June 8, 2011 tributary of the Tennessee Riv ...

, eventually reaching the

Tennessee River The Tennessee River is a long river located in the Southern United States, southeastern United States in the Tennessee Valley. Flowing through the states of Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, and Kentucky, it begins at the confluence of Fren ...

just south of its confluence with the

Ohio River The Ohio River () is a river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing in a southwesterly direction from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to its river mouth, mouth on the Mississippi Riv ...

, while the westernmost part of Puryear drains west via Clear Creek to the North Fork of the

Obion River The Obion River system is the primary surface water drainage system of northwestern Tennessee, United States. Description The Obion has four major forks, the North Fork, Middle Fork, South Fork and Rutherford Fork (which is named after Hen ...

, a tributary of the

Mississippi Mississippi ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Alabama to the east, the Gulf of Mexico to the south, Louisiana to the s ...

Demographics

As of the

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

of 2000, there were 667 people, 284 households, and 191 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 328 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 95.65%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 2.70%

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

, 0.15% Native American, 0.45% Asian, 0.45% from other races, and 0.60% from two or more races.

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

or Latino of any race were 0.75% of the population. There were 284 households, out of which 26.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 53.9% were

married couples Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...

living together, 9.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 32.7% were non-families. 27.5% of all households were made up of individuals, and 14.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.27 and the average family size was 2.73. In the city, the population was spread out, with 19.8% under the age of 18, 8.7% from 18 to 24, 26.8% from 25 to 44, 22.9% from 45 to 64, and 21.7% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 41 years. For every 100 females there were 92.2 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 91.1 males. The median income for a household in the city was $28,750, and the median income for a family was $36,042. Males had a median income of $22,315 versus $20,481 for females. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...

for the city was $17,131. About 7.4% of families and 10.8% of the population were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...

, including 24.3% of those under age 18 and 9.3% of those age 65 or over.

References

{{Authority control Cities in Henry County, Tennessee