Carbury is named after the village of Carbury in County Kildare, Ireland. Founded in 1901 as a station on the Great Northern Railway, the post office first opened April 16, 1906.[2] Though the town has been known as Carbury since its founding, it was originally intended to be named Roth, which is a town roughly 12 miles (19 km) to the west. However, due to a mixup by railroad officials or the Secretary of State, depending on who tells the story, the townsite names were accidentally switched when the wrong signs were posted.[2] The mistake was never corrected.[7] Carbury's original post office was assigned the zip code 58724.[4] The post office closed in 1984, and mail service was merged with Souris, North Dakota.[4]
The town experienced a top population of 50 in 1920, which had dwindled to 5 by 1980.[2]
^Sherman, William C. (1983). Prairie Mosaic: An Ethnic Atlas of Rural North Dakota. Fargo, North Dakota: North Dakota Institute for Regional Studies. p. 71. ISBN0-911042-27-X. OCLC256228966.