COAHOMA COUNTY
Chapter XLV, pages 710-712
Coahoma County is one of the richest and
most progressive of Mississippi divisions. It is second to Bolivar as a
cotton producer, and the value of its lands has been increasing by leaps
and bounds for the past twenty years. For seventy years, or since the first
Federal census of its population was taken, not a single decade has witnessed
a decrease in the number of its people; and this statement does not even
except the decade covering the War for Southern Independence, which even
could not be said of Bolivar.
Coahoma County was established February
9, 1836, and is located in the northwestern part of the State in the fertile
Yazoo Delta region. The name "Coahoma" is a Choctaw word signifying "red
panther." The act creating the county defined its limits as follows: "Beginning
at the point where the line between townships 24 and 25 of the surveys
of the late Choctaw cession intersects the Mississippi River, and running
thence up the said river to the point where the dividing line between the
Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes of Indians intersects the same; thence with
the dividing line to the point where the line between ranges two and three
of the survey of the said Choctaw cession intersects the same; thence with
said range line, to the line between townships 24 and 25 aforesaid, and
thence with the said township line to the beginning."
The county has a land surface of 530 square
miles. It constitutes one of the numerous counties formed from the Choctaw
cession of 1830. It is bounded on the north by Tunica County, on the east
by Quitman and Tallahatchie counties, on the south by Bolivar and Sunflower
counties, and on the west by the Mississippi River. In 1877 the county
relinquished a part of its territory to Quitman.
The following is a list of the county officers
two years after the county was established: L. Baker, Henry Weathers, James
W. Lunsford, Alfred Holsell, David B. Allen, members of the Board of Police;
S. Swearingin, Aaron Shelby, G.B. Warren, Allen Tackett, William Tunstall,
John Miller, Justices of the Peace; William M. Cador, Sheriff; Euophilus
Huff, Coroner; Aaron Shelby, Judge of Probate; Charles P. Robinson, Ranger;
John L. Dabney, Surveyor; Bushrod B. Warner, Circuit Clerk; John D. Shaw,
Clerk of the Probate Court; Hector J. Palmerton, Assessor and Collector;
John Austin, Ira Piper, Matthew Huff, John R. Jones, Constables.
Port Royal was once the county seat of
Coahoma County. It was a rival of Friar’s Point, five miles up the Mississippi
River. In the early days the county seats of the Mississippi River counties
were always located on the banks of that stream. When Port Royal was cut
off from the river in 1848, its fate was sealed and the county seat of
justice was located at Friar’s Point, which still remained a river town.
The latter place has a population of about 1,000 (census of 1920), and
received its name in honor of Robert Friar, one of its earliest settlers.
Clarksdale, one of the county seats, is now the largest and most important
city in the county, and had a population of 7,500 in 1920. Clarksdale was
named for John Clark, a brother-in-law of Governor Alcorn, whose beautiful
home, Eagle’s Nest, was in this county. The main line of the Yazoo &
Mississippi Valley railway, together with four branches of the same road,
afford the county excellent railroad facilities. From Coahoma in the northeastern
part of the county, two branches cross in a southwesterly direction, one
of which, branching at Clarksdale, crosses the southeastern part of the
county. With its good rail connections, Clarksdale is an exceptionally
favorable location for manufacturing establishments.
No more fertile soil can be found in the
State than in this county. it is a rich alluvium deposited through the
centuries by the overflow of the Mississippi. It produces abundant crops
of cotton, sugar cane, potatoes, hemp, alfalfa and pecans. Much of the
timber with which the county was originally covered has been cleared away
for the plantations, but there still exist large areas of valuable hardwood
forests. But the bulk of its wealth comes from its crops and live stock.
The agricultural interests of Coahoma County
still depend upon negro labor for their support and continued development.
The census of 1920 indicates that more than 8,000 negroes are farming the
lands and only about 3,000 whites. Altogether the crops of the county were
valued at $16,732,000. The area devoted to cotton amounted in 1919 to nearly
140,000 acres and the output to 68,000 bales. The live stock was valued
at more than $3,000,000, of which the mules of the county were assessed
at $2,000,000. Dairy cattle were valued at $355,000; swine at $365,000
(third county in the State), and horses at $274,000. Dairy products brought
$158,000 to the farmers and chickens and eggs, $146,000.
Finally, as noted at the beginning of this
article, the county’s increase in the value of farm property has been remarkable
within the past twenty years. The figures were $6,259,000 for 1900; $14,064,000
for 1910, and $61,522,000 for 1920.
The steady advance in the population of
the county, also noted, is illustrated by the census figures, since and
including 1850. They are as follows: 1850, 2,780; 1860, 6,606; 1870, 7,144;
1880, 13,566; 1890, 18,342; 1900, 26,293; 1910, 34,217; 1920, 41,511.
