LEE COUNTY
CHAPTER XLVI, pages 772 - 773
The county above named, formerly embraced
within the limits of Itawamba and Pontotoc counties, was established October
26, 1866, and was named for Gen. Robert E. Lee, commander of the armies
of the Confederacy. The region was part of the Chickasaw cession of 1832,
and is located in the "northeastern prairie belt" of Mississippi. Lee is
a long, narrow county bounded on the north by Prentiss County and a corner
of Union, on the east by Itawamba County and a corner of Prentiss, on the
south by Monroe and Chickasaw counties and on the west by Pontotoc and
Union. It contains about 418 square miles of territory.
E.G. Thomas, C.A. Marshall, Jesse Hunt,
James R. Harrali, Burrell Jackson, W.H. Calhoun and Jacob Bardin were appointed
commissioners to organize the new county by the original act, and the first
courts were directed to be held at Saltillo, pending the selection of a
permanent seat of justice at a special election, when Tupelo was chosen
April 15, 1867. The first officers of the county were Jacob Bardin, Probate
Judge; D.P. Cypert, Probate Clerk; A.J. Cockran, Circuit Clerk; J.M. Dillard,
Sheriff; A.M. Robinson, Assessor; W.A. Dozier, County Surveyor; Robert
Gray, Coroner; W.R. Hampton, Ranger; J.L. Finley, County Attorney. The
county school commissioners were G.C. Thomason, E.G. Thomas, John B. Sparks
and Rev. J.D. Russell. Col. John M. Simonton was the first State Senator,
and Col. J.D. Wilson and Hugh H. Martin were the first representatives
of the county in the Lower House.
The old brick court house, erected in 1871,
at a cost of $25,000, was burned in 1873. It was replaced by a brick structure
which was also destroyed by fire in 1904. The present court house was erected
at a cost of $60,000. The largest town is Tupelo, the county seat, near
the center, and the junction point of the Mobile & Ohio, and the St.
Louis & San Francisco railroads. Tupelo has a population of 5,000,
is a manufacturing city of importance and is one of the best kept and most
up-to-date cities of the State. It has, among its numerous efforts for
educational and cultural advancement, made much of its surrounding history,
which attracts the attention of the public. By reason of its situation
near the line where the black prairie and Pontotoc Ridge sections meet,
it is the center of a rich farming region. Other important railroad towns
are Baldwyn with a population of 900, situated in both Lee and Prentiss
counties; Nettleton in the southern part, with a population of 650 and
divided between Lee and Monroe counties; and Shannon, Verona, Guntown,
Saltillo, Plantersville and Belden. The county is traversed from north
to south by the Mobile & Ohio railway and from the northwest to the
southeast by the St. Louis & San Francisco railway, which provide it
with excellent transportation facilities.
The county is watered by numerous creeks,
the head waters of the Tombigbee River, of which Old Town is the principal
one. The southern part of the county is a prairie region, but there is
considerable timber found in the northern part and east of the Mobile &
Ohio railway. The timber consists of oak, hickory, ash, gum, poplar, beech
and walnut. The soil is very productive-black hammock, beeswax prairie,
black sandy and sandy. This is an excellent stock country and the industry
has developed rapidly within the last decade.
The Federal Census Bureau bears out all
that has been said about the agricultural productiveness of Lee County.
Its farm property was valued in 1919 at $14,900,000 and its crops realized
for the farmers an amount estimated at $6,185,000. Cereals brought in more
than a third of the total crop value; hay and forage, $331,000 and vegetables,
$309,000. The cotton crop was represented by 14,575 bales raised from an
area of 40,500 acres. The live stock, valued altogether at $2,143,000,
was apportioned as follows: Mules, $861,000; horses, $406,000; dairy cattle,
$510,000, the products of which were estimated at $327,000. In a word,
Lee is a fine dairy country.
In 1920, Lee County had a population of
29,618, an increase of nearly 1,000 since 1910.
