In 1890, the Atlanta, Knoxville and Northern Railroad laid tracks through Monroe County. A stopover known as Upton Station was established just beyond the railroad's Little Tennessee River crossing. Three years later, area doctor Walter Kennedy applied for a post office for Upton Station. When the US postal service informed him that the name of Upton Station had been taken, Kennedy chose the name "Vonore", a combination of the German word "von" (meaning "of") and the English word "ore", as Kennedy believed the town would become a mining town.