LEFLORE COUNTY
CHAPTER XLVI, pages 773 - 777
Leflore County is one of the flourishing
divisions of northwestern Mississippi. It was formerly a part of Sunflower,
Tallahatchie and Carroll counties and was established March 15, 1871, during
the administration of Governor Alcorn. It was directed, by the act creating
the county, that the county records, together with the buildings and grounds
at McNutt, now in Leflore County, should be retained by Leflore, and that
the county seat should be located at Greenwood. It was named in honor of
Greenwood Leflore, the last and most powerful chief of the Choctaws in
Mississippi. The county constitutes a long, irregularly shaped area on
the eastern side of the fertile Yazoo delta, and has a land surface of
572 square miles. It is bounded on the north by Tallahatchie County, the
Yazoo River forming part of the boundary line, on the east by Grenada and
Carroll counties, on the south by Holmes County, the Yazoo River again
forming part of the boundary line, and on the west by Sunflower County.
No section in the State is possessed of
greater natural resources and the county ranks among the first in the value
of its products. On account of the low, level topography of the region
and its moist, warm climate, malarial fevers prevail to some extent. In
common, however, with the rest of the Delta region, it is underlaid by
an artesian basin,and plenty of pure, cold water can be obtained by drilling
wells from 160 to 1,500 feet in depth.
Greenwood the progressive and wealthy county
seat, was also named in honor of Greenwood Leflore. It is noted for its
prominent men and women who are active in public affairs of the State.
Greenwood was first called Williams Landing, and was incorporated in 1845
and called Greenwood. It is a place of 7,700 inhabitants, situated in the
eastern part of the county on the Yazoo River, three miles below where
the Tallahatchie and Yalobusha rivers unite to form the Yazoo River. It
is on the Southern railway, and at the junction of two branches of the
Yazoo & Mississippi Valley railway. It is a manufacturing and shipping
point of importance. Other towns, most of them on the railroad, are Ittabena,
near the center of the county, and an incorporated town of over 1,600 people;
North Greenwood, Morgan City village, Sunnyside, Sidon, Shellmound, Schlater
and Philipp. The railroads are the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley, and
the Southern, a branch of the latter road running north from Ittabena to
Webb, in Tallahatchie County. Besides the excellent railroad shipping facilities,
the Yazoo and Tallahatchie rivers pursue a tortuous course through the
center of the county, and are navigable the entire year. Other streams
and waters are Howling Wolf Bayou, Turkey Bayou, Bear Creek, Lake Henry,
and Blue, McIntyre, Mossy and McNutt lakes. The soil is alluvial and extremely
fertile and will produce from one to two bales of cotton to the acre and
from 30 to 60 bushels of corn. It produces abundantly all the crops common
to the Delta region.
Leflore County has steadily advanced in
population and wealth since it was established in 1871. In 1880, the first
Federal census year since its organization, it had a population of 10,246;
in 1890, 16,869; 1900, 23,834; 1910, 36,290; 1920, 37,256. The increase
in the value of its farm property has been remarkable within the past twenty
years. In 1900 it was assessed at $4,909,000; in 1910, at $13,778,000,
and in 1920, at $36,547,000. As Lefiore County is one of the banner cotton
regions of Mississippi, a large negro population is found in the county.
The enumeration gives the negroes more than 29,000 people, and they outnumber
the whites nearly four to one. Within the county an area of 109,000 acres
is set aside for the raising of cotton, and during the year 1919, 40,000
bales were produced, which gave it rank in that regard, as the fourth county
in the State.
The total value of the crops is given as
$10,464,000, of which the cereals brought in $1,114,000 and the vegetables
of the county, $204,000. Leflore is a fine live stock country, and there
are few sections of the State which have a higher reputation for the raising
of superior mules than Lefiore. In 1919, its live stock dealers valued
them at $1,436,000.
