.
Holmes
County
HOLMES COUNTY
CHAPTER XLVI, pages 739 - 741
Holmes County is located in the west central
part of the State and was created February 19, 1833. It was originally
part of the territory forming the large county of Hinds, ceded to the United
States by the Choctaw Indians in the Treaty of Doak’s Stand, October 18,
1820, and long known as the "New Purchase." One of the counties created
out of Hinds was Yazoo, and from Yazoo County was taken the region forming
the present county of Holmes. It was named in honor of Gov. David Holmes,
fourth Territorial governor, first State governor, and later United States
Senator for Mississippi. The original act defines its limits as follows:
"Beginning at Bole’s ferry, on Big Black, in the county of Yazoo, and in
section 22, in township 12, and range 3 east; thence on a direct line to
Yazoo River, at a point where the township line, between townships 13 and
14, strikes the same; thence up said river to a point on the same, 12 miles
north of the township line, between townships 15 and 16; thence on a direct
line, to the corner of the old Choctaw Boundary line on Black Creek, known
by the name of Gum Corner; thence continuing the same course to Big Black;
thence down the same, to the beginning."
In 1918, a portion of western Holmes County
was contributed to the formation of Humphreys. It has now an area of 751
square miles. Four of the oldest settlements in Holmes County were Rankin,
Montgomery, Vernon and Georgevifle. All these old settlements are now extinct.
Tradition recites that Etho Beau, a justice of the peace, held at Rankin,
under the protection of a gun, the first county court. Rankin, was located
about five miles from Tchula, and aspired at first to be the seat of justice
of the new county. Captain Parrisot, father of Capt. S.H. Parrisot, and
father-in-law of F. Barksdalle, of Yazoo City, settled near here in 1828,
and kept a hotel in Rankin until 1834. Wm. MeLellan came from Biloxi in
1826 and settled on Little Black Creek on the east side. Montgomery (inc.
1836) was on the west bank of Big Black River at Pickens Ferry. Vernon
was once a thriving town about 12 miles north of Lexington. Georgeville
was situated in the northwest quarter of S. 35, T. 14, R. 3 east. In the
early days of the county when it was sparsely settled many daring deeds,
some of a romantic nature, others the outcome of outlawry were committed
in the region, and several notorious robbers and counterfeiters, belonging
to the much feared "Murrell clan", were captured at Tchula, severely punished
and driven from the country. Among some of the names identified with the
early history of the county may be mentioned Nathaniel E. Rives, Archibald
H. Paxton, W. T. Land, Dr. Garret Keirn, Robert Cook, James R. Enloe, James
M. Dyer, John W. Dyer, John W. Anderson, Israel W. Pickens, W.W. George,
Dr. Frances R. Cheatham, Dr. Ira S. Mitchell, Joseph R. Plummer, Alexander
Magee, Vincent H. Carraway, William H. Hines, John W. Cowen, and William
McLellan, the progenitor of the numerous people of that name living in
the Bowling Green neighborhood.
[Senator Hernando DeSoto
Money (1839 - 1912)
Representative and
a Senator from Mississippi. Born Zeiglersville, Holmes County, MS.]
Besides the Yazoo and Big Black
rivers above mentioned, which wash the borders of the county, it is well
watered by numerous tributaries of these rivers and several lakes—Tchula,
Bee, Horseshoe, Clear and Pinchback. Transportation is afforded by the
rivers and by two lines of the Illinois Central railway, which traverse
it from north to south, and by the Yazoo branch running east and west,
from Durant to Tchula. The soil is black and loamy on the bottoms, and
black and sandy on the uplands. It produces abundant crops of corn, cotton,
oats, wheat, field peas, millet, sugar cane, sorghum, and grasses, and
the Louisiana ribbon cane. Much attention is paid to the raising of fruits,
such as peaches, pears, early apples, figs, plums, and strawberries, which
do well and are shipped north in considerable quantities. The fruit farming
is along the main line of the Illinois Central railroad. The timber resources
are also valuable.
Holmes County is bounded on the north by
Carroll and Leflore counties, on the east by the Big Black River which
divides it from the county of Attala, on the south by Attala and Yazoo
counties and on the west by Yazoo, Humphreys and Lefiore counties.
The seat of justice is located at Lexington,
near the center of the county on a branch of the Yazoo & Mississippi
Valley railroad running to Durant and Tchula. The county seat is an incorporated
town of 1,800 people, in the midst of a fine farming region and is a shipping
point for large quantities of fruits. Durant is even larger than the county
seat. It is a place of some 1,900 inhabitants and is advantageously located
at the junction of the Yazoo & Mississippi and the Aberdeen branch
of the Illinois Central. Durant ships large quantities of strawberries
and vegetables to northern markets, and is a leading trade center for a
considerable territory. Three miles west of that place is the Castalian
mineral spring. Of the other towns and villages scattered throughout the
county are Goodman, Tchula, Cruger, Howard, West, and Ebenezer. The social
conditions of the county are the best and it has given the State many distinguished
men and women.
Holmes County is notable for the products
of its soil, especially in the raising of small fruits. It is second only
to Lauderdale as a raiser of strawberries, producing in 1919 more than
117,000 quarts of the luscious berry. The value of all its farm property
was placed at $23,212,000 and its crops for that year at $7,850,000. The
cereals were valued at $1,738,000 and the vegetables at $491,000. The cotton
fields covered an area of 73,900 acres and produced 24,500 bales. As to
its live stock, valued at $2,750,000, the raising of mules brought the
farmers an assessed wealth of more than $1,100,000 and dairy cattle and
horses more than half a million dollars each. It is also one of the foremost
sections of the State in the raising of swine, that branch of its live
stock being valued at $306,000 in 1919.
Return to
County History Index
MSGenWeb Home
Source:
Mississippi The Heart of the South - By Dunbar Rowland, LL.D - Director
of the Mississippi State Department of Archives and History. Vol.
II Illustrated. Chicago-Jackson; The S. J. Clarke Publishing
Company, 1925. Public Domain
Copyright Notice: All files
and photographs on this site are copyrighted by their creator and/or contributor,
unless otherwise noted. They may be linked to but may not be reproduced
on another site without specific permission from The MSGenWeb State Coordinator
or the Assistant State Coordinator, and/or their contributor. Although
public information is not in and of itself copyrightable, the format in
which they are presented, the notes and comments, etc., are. It is however,
quite permissible to print or save the files to a personal computer for
personal use ONLY.
  
|
