Established as McLeod Settlement in the 1870's, the community was called Macon, Hernando County, in 1885 when its first post office opened and was renamed Trilby in 1896 after three railroads converged there. Its platted streets and square were named for characters in George DuMaurier's novel Trilby. The town once boasted a railway station, churches, a free school, bank, TB sanitarium, jail, hotel, Masonic Hall, steam sawmills, grist mills, a blacksmith shop, doctors' offices, and numerous stores. In 1925 a bucket brigade and Dade City's fire truck, which lost its waterhouses on the way, could not stop fire from destroying much of the town.