Burley and Brown were tied together and hung from a telephone pole within sight of the town's train depot.

[8] In 1930, a Works Progress Administration guide described the town as a "cotton trade center" with multiple cotton gins that handled much of the ginning work from Dyer County and the surrounding counites in northwest Tennessee.

[10] On April 2, 2006, sixteen people were killed in Newbern when it and its surrounding communities were directly hit by an F3 tornado.

[11][12] According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 4.8 square miles (12 km2), all land.

The climate in this area is characterized by hot, humid summers and generally mild to cool winters.

[13] As of the 2020 United States Census, there were 3,349 people, 1,252 households, and 762 families residing in the town.

No one was reported injured in this event and the train itself acquired little damage, stopping prior to blocking the crossing located to the west of the depot.