HUMPHREYS COUNTY
CHAPTER XLVI, pages 741 - 741
This is the youngest of the Mississippi
counties, and was created from parts of Holmes, Sharkey, Sunflower, Washington
and Yazoo, by act of the legislature approved March 28, 1918. It was named
in honor of Benjamin G. Humphreys, a notable general in the army of the
Confederacy and the first governor of Mississippi to serve after the War
for Southern Independence. It has an area of 408 square miles, and is bounded
as follows: On the north by Sunflower and Leflore counties, on the east
by portions of Leflore, Holmes and Yazoo counties, on the south by Holmes
and Yazoo and on the west by Sharkey, Washington and Sunflower.
Belzoni is the seat of justice of the new
county, and is an incorporated city of about 2,200 people. The county is
well accommodated by various lines of the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley
and the Illinois Central, and outside of Belzoni there are such incorporated
places as Isola, Louise and Silver City, all lying along these routes of
travel.
Humphreys County is in the rich cotton
belt of Mississippi. Though just beginning its career bids fair to win
as high a place as any county of the State in all the activities and progress
of the country. It devotes more than 56,000 acres to the raising of cotton
alone. In 1919, over 21,000 bales were placed upon the market to the credit
of the county. The census enumerators assessed all its farm property at
$16,693,000, and the value of its crops at $5,730,000, while the live stock
was reported to be worth $1,456,000.
