CHICKASAW COUNTY
Chapter XLIV, pages 697-700
This county, located in the northeastern
part of the State, was established February 9, 1836, during the administration
of Gov. Charles Lynch. It was named for the Chickasaw Indians and was part
of the territory ceded by that tribe in the treaty of Pontotoc, October
20, 1832. Indian philologists derive the word Chickasaw from chikasha (rebellion),
probably referring to the separation of the nation from the Creeks and
Choctaws.
Chickasaw County, which has a land surface
of 501 square miles, is bounded on the north by Pontotoc and Lee counties,
on the east by Monroe, south by Clay and Webster and west by Calhoun. Its
original area was about 30 townships, or 1,080 square miles, which has
been reduced to its present territory by portions taken from it in the
formation of Clay, Webster and Calhoun counties.
Two of the earliest settlements were Prairie
Mount, situated on the edge of the prairie, in the northeastern part of
the county near Okolona; and Pikesville, once the center of trade and located
on the east bank of Chuquatonchee River, at the east end of the old turnpike,
still maintained on the road from Houston to Aberdeen. Both these places
are now extinct, but were prosperous villages in the early days of the
county. The following is a list of the county officers for the year 1838:
John Delashmet, Littleberry Gilliam, (see Prairie Mount), Benjamin Bugg,
Thomas N. Martin, Benjamin Kilgore, Members of the Board of Police; Mathew
Knox, Judge of Probate; Richard L. Aycock, Sheriff; Claiborne Williams,
Coroner; Geo. W. Thornton, Clerk of the Circuit Court; Charles Graeff,
Clerk of the Probate Court, John W.H. Davis, Assessor and Collector; Wiley
Griffen, County Treasurer; Peter Tittle, Ranger; William McNutt, County
Surveyor. The county seats are Houston and Okolona. April 21, 1863, the
county suffered the loss of many of its early records by fire. Houston,
named for the famous Indian fighter Gen. Sam Houston, was incorporated
in 1837, and is now a town of 1,400 people. Okolona is a town of 3,800
inhabitants, located on the Mobile & Ohio railway, in the heart of
the "black prairie" belt. The center of a large fertile district, it is
an important shipping point for grain and hay and has a prosperous local
trade. The name is derived from an Indian word meaning "much bent".
Other towns in the county of more or less
importance are Houlka (population, 800), Sparta, Sycamore, VanVleet, Buena-Vista,
Woodland and Atlanta. Nearly every section of the county is well watered
by the numerous creeks, and, in the hilly portions, many fine springs of
pure water are to be found, which, with the excellent pasturage that prevails,
has given a great impetus to the live stock industry, and has rendered
Chickasaw County one of the most prosperous stock raising and creamery
districts in the State. The Mobile & Ohio R. R. runs through the eastern
part of the county from north to south and a branch of the same road runs
through the county from east to west, and west of Houston it passes through
a fine belt of hardwood and pine timber lands. The Gulf, Mobile & Northern
line passes through the county from north to south in the western part
of the county.
The timber resources of the county are
extensive and consist of the varieties common to this section of the State,
oaks, hickory, walnut, beech, ash, poplar, pine and chestnut. The general
surface of the county is quite diversified; the eastern part is in the
"black prairie" region; the central part is sandy and hilly, and the western
part is in the flatwoods district, a good cotton soil, covered with much
valuable timber and known also as a good hay and stock region. In the east
the soil is of great depth and fertility and splendid crops of cotton,
grains and grasses as well as fruits and vegetables are grown. The central
portions, when not exhausted by one variety of growth, are fertile and
produce good crops of all varieties and are remarkable for adaptation to
fruit culture which is being developed to a great extent on Pontotoc Ridge.
The standing of Chickasaw County in the
agricultural interests of the State is told by the Federal census of 1920.
The farmers who have done so much to promote her general progress are thus
divided as to race: Whites, 1,439; negroes, 1,616. In 1920 the total value
of all the farm property in Chickasaw County was $10,075,000; in 1910,
only $5,786,000. The value of the crops raised in 1919 was $3,713,000,
of which cereals produced $1,193,000. From 28,000 acres of land were raised
8,500 bales of cotton. Chickasaw County is quite a live stock as well as
a fruit district. Her domestic animals were valued at $1,517,000, of which
about a third was represented by mules. The dairy cattle were given a valuation
of $331,000 and horses, $309,000. Within the limits of the county, there
were in 1919 over 22,000 fruit trees of various ages, more than 10,000
of which were bearing. Peaches were in the decided majority, with apples
a good second.
The population of Chickasaw County has,
on the whole, increased although during some decades it has not quite held
its own. In 1850, it was 16,369; in 1920, 22,212, which was a decrease
of a few hundred since 1910. The population of the county before the Confederacy
contained many wealthy and cultured men and women.
