In 1890, on Christmas Eve, the town of Irmo was chartered. The chartering of the town was in response to the anticipated opening of the railroad (CN&L) in 1891. The strange name of IRMO was a molding of the names of the two men who were most responsible in this new venture: Captain C.J. Iredell of Columbia and Henry C. Moseley of Prosperity. They will forever be remembered in the name of this 100+ year old town. Aside from farming, Irmo's very first industry was the Piedmont Land

Improvement Company. The CN&L railroad obtained much of the lumber for the trestle woodwork. The first train service through Irmo began in July, 1890. The location of Irmo was selected because a site approximately 10 miles from Columbia was needed for refueling of the wood-burning locomotives and water replenishment. The CN&L railroad chose the site of IRMO to be the refueling site and the name was formed by combining the first two letters of Captian C.J. Iredell and H.C. Moseley. There is no record of the names that were rejected. Irmo was originally one square mile in area, but annexation has vastly increased the town limits during the last 25 years.