 A post office called Lyerly has been in operation since 1889, when a small town began to develop around a depot constructed by the Chattanooga, Rome and Columbus Railroad.The post office was moved from the nearby town of Melville, which had gone bankrupt that same year.The new town, which incorporated in 1891, may have been named for Charles A. Lyerly, a banker from Tennessee who had made several real estate investments in the area.