Shelby County Tn - Biographies - The Goodspeed Biographical Sketches "I" Surnames
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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.