BENTON COUNTY
Chapter XLIV, pages 688-690
Benton County is another Mississippi county
organized during the reconstruction times, being organized from parts of
Marshall and Tippah counties, July 15, 1870, during the administration
of Governor Alcorn. Its name honors the memory of General Samuel Benton,
who was killed in the War for Southern Independence at the battle of Ezra
Church, near Atlanta, July 28, 1864. Its early annals are identical with
those of the region from which its territory was carved.
Benton is the central of the northern tier
of counties bordering on Tennessee, and is among the smaller and less populous
of the counties. Its land area is 396 square miles, and its population
9,851. It has the advantage of being situated but a short distance from
the city of Memphis, which places its people in close touch with the activities
of both the social and business world.
One of the early settlements of this county,
but now extinct, was Lamar, situated about midway between Lagrange, Tennessee,
and Holly Springs, Mississippi. It gave its name to the town on the railroad
two miles east which, although containing but a few people, is incorporated
as a village. Col. Timmons L. Treadwell was the leading merchant and planter
of the village, and his sons were afterward prominent merchants in Memphis.
In this rich agricultural section of the county were many wealthy planters
such as Capt. Wm. Coopwood, Thomas Mull, Col. Chas. L. Thomas, and Judge
A. M. Clayton. Here were also found the Smiths, Hendrons, Chainers, Rooks,
Rhineharts, Gormans, Dr. Cummings, Col. A. H. Govan, Dr. Hardaway, John
Dabney and Wm. Hull. The site of Lamar is now a cultivated field.
Ashland, the county seat, is situated at
the center of the county and is a small incorporated village of 200 inhabitants,
named for the home of Henry Clay. Besides Ashland, there are a number of
other small towns in the county, the more important of which are Lamar
and Michigan City on the Illinois Central railroad and Hickory Flat and
Winborn on the Kansas City, Memphis & Birmingham division of the San
Francisco & St. Louis system. The Illinois Central line cuts across
the northwestern corner of Benton County, and the latter railroad through
its southwestern corner. Ashland, the county seat, has no railroad connection.
Thus deficient in getting its agricultural
and dairy products and its live stock to market, Benton County has not
shown the growth evinced by other sections of the State which have been
more fortunate in this respect. The last census indicates that there are
nearly 2,000 farmers in the county, of whom the whites slightly outnumber
the negroes. The total amount realized in 1919 from all the crops raised
in Benton County was $2,366,000. The domestic animals of all kinds were
valued at $872,000. Benton County is a pleasant upland region well watered
and has many natural advantages as a live stock country, and with better
transportation facilities there is no reason why her territory should not
be substantially developed.
