LAWRENCE COUNTY
CHAPTER XLVI, pages 769 - 770
Lawrence County is in the southern part
of Mississippi in the second tier of counties from the Louisiana border.
It was one of the fourteen territorial counties represented in the constitutional
convention of 1817, having been created December 22, 1814, from the older
county of Marion. It originally embraced the eastern half of the present
county of Lincoln. The original act defined its boundaries as follows:
"Beginning on the Franklin County line, where the middle section of the
fifth township intersects the same; thence east along the said line to
its intersection with the eastern boundary line of the county of Marion.
And all that tract of country on the north side of said line, and within
the original boundary of Marion County, shall form a county, known by the
name of Lawrence." Its original area was about 1,000 square miles. By act
of January 5, 1819, it contributed of its eastern area to form the county
of Covington, and February 12th, of the same year, it surrendered to Marion
County the northern half of township 5, ranges 17 and 18; in 1870, it contributed
of its western area to form the county of Lincoln and in 1906, a part of
its territory was detached in the formation of Jefferson Davis County.
The present area of the county is 418 square miles. It is situated in a
pleasant region of the State and has an interesting history covering a
century in the development of the State.
For a period of five years county courts
were held at the house of Wright Mitchell, and then a rude log court house
was built on the site of the present building: Harmon Runnels, Chief Justice
of the Quorum; Stephen Noble, J. Q.; Benjamin Goodson, J. Q.; James Stigler,
J. Q.; Harmon M. Runnels, Clerk, and Hardin, D. Runnels, Sheriff, constituted
the first court as organized March 6, 1815. The civil officers of the county
in 1818 were as follows: George W. King, Chief Justice of the Quorum, and
John Reagan and Eli Garner, Justices of the Quorum; Samuel Alexander, Randolph
Traylor, Fort Alfred, Warner, Francis Ross, Harper Garner, Alex. Hall,
Jesse Maxwell, Wm. Smith, Sr., Samuel Pepper, Joseph Hart, Francis Tilman,
Thomas Ship, Arthur Fox, John N. Field, Justices of the Peace; John Burney,
Assessor and Collector; Harper Garner, County Surveyor; Wylie Bohahnon,
County Treasurer; Jonathan Armstrong, Leonard Green, Wm. D. Hathorn, Thos.
P. Honea, Thos. Matthews, Phillips, Parish Garner, Ezekiel Loften, William
Mallet, Constables. The county was named in commemoration of James Lawrence,
captain of the Chesapeake in the memorable battle with the British on Lake
Erie. Its northern boundary is the old Choctaw boundary line of 1805, separating
it from Copiah and Simpson counties on the north, Jefferson Davis County
is on the east, Marion and Walthall counties on the south, and Lincoln
County, named in the Reconstruction period, on the west. It is an old settled
region in the south central part of the State, and its hardy and vigorous
pioneers contributed largely to the early beginnings of Mississippi.
The little village of Monticello, with
a population of 464 and situated on a high bluff on the western bank of
the Pearl River, is the county seat; it was the home of Harmon Runnels,
Hiram G., Harmon M. and Hardin D. Runnels, his sons. Harmon Runnels came
to the State from Georgia, built the first house in Monticello and was
a forceful representative in the constitutional convention of 1817. He
reared a large family, which became influential in the annals of the State.
Hiram G. Runnels, one of the sons, became Governor of the State in 1833.
There are no large settlements in Lawrence
County, the more important ones being Monticello, the county seat, and
the railroad towns of Grange, Hebron, Prentiss, Silvercreek and a number
of other pleasant villages.
The county is well watered by the Pearl
River which flows through the center, together with its numerous tributaries.
From the figures given relative to Lawrence
County in the agricultural section of the 1920 census devoted to Mississippi
it is learned that the value of the farm property of the county was $2,518,000
in 1919 and of its crops raised that year, $2,117,000. Of late years considerable
attention has been given to truck farming, which, in the year mentioned,
brought an income of $294,000. The population of the county has been on
the decline since 1900; it was 12,663 in 1920.
