JEFFERSON DAVIS COUNTY
CHAPTER XLVI, pages 753 - 754
This is one of the South Mississippi counties
formed within the past twenty years. Its creation was authorized by legislative
act of March 31, 1906 (approved May 9th). It was taken from the territory
of Lawrence and Covington counties and was named in honor of Jefferson
Davis, the State being anxious to have a county named in honor of the President
of the Southern Confederacy. It is situated in the long-leaf, or yellow
pine region of the State, in the second tier of counties from the Louisiana
border and is bounded as follows: North by Simpson County; east by Covington;
south by Marion; west by Lawrence.
At a special election held in April, 1906,
the county seat was located at Prentiss, in the central part of the county,
and named for Sargent Smith Prentiss, the gifted Mississippi orator, thus
linking together the names of two of Mississippi’s most illustrious citizens.
Jefferson Davis County has railroad accommodations
mainly through the Mississippi Central system, although the Gulf &
Ship Island line runs within a few miles of most of its western border.
In fact, Oakvale, on the latter railroad, is partly in Jefferson Davis
and partly in Lawrence County. Prentiss, the county seat, Bassfield, and
other towns and stations are along the Mississippi Central line.
Since its formation, the county has just
about held its own in population, the census for 1920 giving the figures
as 12,755. The value of its farm property is estimated at $4,109,000; of
its crops (for 1919) at $2,795,000, of which $638,000 covered the cereal
production and $345,000 that of vegetables. Nearly 27,000 acres are cultivated
to cotton, and in 1919 more than 7,000 bales were raised from that area.
