CLARKE COUNTY
Chapter XLV, pages 705-706
Clarke County is situated in the eastern
part of the State on the Alabama border and was established December 23,
1833. It was named in honor of Judge Joshua G. Clarke, the first Chancellor
of the State. It has an area of 675 square miles, its county bounds being
as follows: North by Lauderdale, south by Wayne and west by Jasper. Its
southern line which divides it from Wayne County marks the old Choctaw
boundary.
The original act defined its limits as
follows: "Beginning on the State line of Alabama, at the point at which
the line between townships four and five strikes said State line, and running
thence west with said line between townships four and five, to the line
between ranges thirteen and fourteen east; thence south, with said line
between ranges thirteen and fourteen east to the southern boundary line
of the Choctaw nation, thence east with said boundary line to the northwest
corner of the Higoowanne reserve; thence to the northeast corner of the
same; thence east along said boundary line to the point at which the southern
boundary of township number one strikes the same; thence directly east
to the State of Alabama, and thence north with said State line to the place
of beginning."
The following is a list of the first officers
of the county: David B. Thompson, Sheriff; George Evans, Treasurer; Henry
Hailes, Probate Judge; William Covington, Clerk of the Circuit and Probate
Courts; Norman Martin, Samuel K. Lewis, George Knight, Stephen Grice, Calvin
M. Ludlow, members of the Board of Police.
The county seat is Quitman, located at
the center of the county on the line of the Mobile & Ohio railway.
The site was owned and laid off into lots by Gen. John Watts, afterwards
Circuit Judge. It is a place of 1,400 inhabitants and was named for Gen.
John A. Quitman, second Chancellor of the State, afterwards governor and
a prominent officer in the Mexican war. Two more of the important towns
in the county are Stonewall and Enterprise, in the northern part of the
county on the line of the Mobile & Ohio, containing 1,000 inhabitants.
The Stonewall cotton factory is a flourishing industry. Some of the other
towns are Shubuta, Pachuta and De Soto. The Chickasawhay River flows through
the center of the county, and, with its numerous tributaries, provides
ample water facilities. All the waters of the county flow southward, and
join the Pascagoula River in Greene County.
The Mobile & Ohio railway runs through
the center of the county, and the New Orleans & Northeastern railway
through the western part, giving it excellent railroad communication north
and south.
The general surface of the county is level
and it is well timbered with long-leaf or yellow pine; in the bottom lands
with oak, hickory, magnolia, beech, pecan, etc. The soil is a light sandy
loam with a clay subsoil which is very rich on the bottoms. It produces
cotton, corn, oats, peas, peanuts, sugar cane and rice, as well as all
kinds of fruits and vegetables. Pasture for stock is extensive and the
industry of stock raising and sheep husbandry will eventually attain to
large proportions. Manufactures to exploit the wealth of raw material in
this region are rapidly developing, and products to the value of $4,000,000
now represent the annual output of more than forty establishments. The
agricultural industries are conducted by a majority of white farmers, more
than two thousand men and women being thus employed. Clarke County raises
crops of all kinds valued yearly at nearly $2,000,000. Its live stock is
valued at $1,000,000, to which its dairy cattle contribute about $230,000.
The census of 1920 gives the county a population
of 17,927 people.
