Kenbridge was settled in the late nineteenth century as a farming community. It was originally named Tinkling for a post office established there in Feb. 1890. The Virginia Railway laid its track through the community by 1907, and a telegraph station was established by 1909. On 14 March 1908, the Virginia General Assembly incorporated the town of Kenbridge, which took its name from the last names of local citizens William F. Kennedy and Lewis Bridgforth. By 1910, the first tobacco warehouses had been constructed, and with the railroad they helped Kenbridge become an important tobacco market and a business center for the region.