.
Lafayette
County
LAFAYETTE COUNTY
CHAPTER XLVI, pages 760 - 762
The county above named was established
February 9, 1836, and was named in honor of a distinguished soldier of
France and friend of the American Republic, the Marquis de Lafayette. It
is one of the dozen counties drawn from the Chickasaw Indian lands in northern
Mississippi during that year, after the Chickasaws, in 1832, had surrendered
all their remaining lands by the Treaty of Pontotoc. The original act defines
its boundaries as follows: "Beginning at the point where the line between
townships 11 and 12 intersects the basis meridian, to the center of township
6; thence west, through the center of township 6, according to the sectional
lines, to the center of range 5 west; thence south, through the center
of range 5 west, according to the sectional lines, to the northern boundary
line of Yalobusha County, to the point where the line between townships
11 and 12 intersects the eastern boundary line of Yalobusha County, and
thence east with the said township line to the beginning."
Two of the earliest settlements in the
county were at Eaton and Wyatt—both of which are now extinct. Eaton was
about fifteen miles west of the present town of Oxford, on the Tallahatchie
River, where there was a ferry enabling the settlers of parts of Panola
and Lafayette counties to cross the river, on their way to and from Oxford.
The panic of 1837 destroyed the incipient town. Dr. Corbin was a prominent
planter of the neighborhood in the early '30s. Wyatt was located about
13 miles from Oxford, on the supposed head of navigation of the Tallahatchie
River. It was first settled about the time of the Chickasaw cession, and
was once the shipping point for a large section of country, and boats plied
between it and New Orleans. The Brooks gin, manufactured here, was widely
used in northern Mississippi. Here dwelt for a time the celebrated Dr.
Robert Watt, called the best physician in Northern Mississippi; Thos. H.
Allen, A. Gillis, Andrew Peterson, Maj. Alston, Dr. R.O. Carter and Dr.
Edw. McMucken. The town decayed rapidly after the panic of 1887.
[The stately
home of the Honorable Jacob Thompson, who served twelve years as
Congressman from Mississippi,
and served as Secretary of Interior in the cabinet of
James Buchanan, was
located in Oxford.]
Lafayette County, which has an area of
664 square miles, is bounded on the north by the county of Marshall, the
Tallahatchie River forming part of the dividing line; on the east, by Union
and Pontotoc counties; on the south by Calhoun and Yalobusha counties;
and on the west by Panola County. The most important town and the county
seat is the thriving city of Oxford, built on a beautiful ridge near the
center of the county. It contained a population of 2,150 in 1920. It is
noted as the seat of the State University and the home of many families
of wealth and culture. It received its name from the English university
town of the same name in anticipation of its subsequent selection as the
seat of the State’s chief institution of learning. The University was located
here by Act of the Legislature in 1840, and during the last ten years,
has advanced materially in the thoroughness and scope of its work, as well
as in point of attendance. There was also located in Oxford (until 1904),
the Union Female College, incorporated in 1838 as the Oxford Female Academy,
and, in 1854, reincorporated and placed under the auspices of the Cumberland
Presbyterian church. This was the second institution of learning chartered
within the limits of the Chickasaw cession, and ranked as the oldest female
school in the State, of unbroken history.
[Pioneer building of the
University of Mississippi, Oxford.]
Besides Oxford, the towns of Abbeville,
Taylor, Lafayette Springs, and Springdale are railroad towns of some importance.
The county is watered by the Tallahatchie and Yocona rivers and their numerous
tributaries. The Illinois Central railroad crosses the central part of
the county from north to south and gives the region excellent transportation
facilities. The town of Water Valley, in Yalobusha County, is the market
and shipping point for the southern part of the county. The general character
of the soil is good and the region produces cotton, corn, oats, sorghum,
and all kinds of grasses. A good deal of attention has been paid to the
cultivation of fruits and this industry has been much encouraged by the
liberal policy of the Illinois Central Railway Company. Apples, pears,
peaches, figs and small fruits are raised and shipped to the large northern
markets. There is a good deal of valuable timber left in the county, much
of it hardwood. Much attention is being paid to stock raising, for which
the region is well adapted. There is little manufacturing done in the county
as yet and its wealth lies in its live stock and the products of its soil.
Lafayette County has had both increases
and decreases in its population since the Federal Census Bureau first issued
the figures relating to it in 1860. In the year mentioned it was 14,069,
and its peak was reached in 1900, when the population was given at 22,210.
In 1920, it was 19,243.
The last figures compiled by the bureau
also indicate that the entire property of Lafayette County devoted to agricultural
purposes is valued at $7,628,000; of which live stock is placed at $1,564,000;
that the 1919 crops were estimated to be worth $3,944,000, of which the
cereals constituted $1,383,000 and vegetables, $358,000; that 22,000 acres
of the county were cultivated to cotton and that in the year named 8,000
bales were produced from that area.
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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
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