LINCOLN COUNTY
CHAPTER XLVI, pages 777 - 778
Lincoln County was established during the
military Reconstruction period of the State, April 7, 1870, and was named
for President Abraham Lincoln. As an indication of the Southerner’s spirit
of generosity and broad mindedness, though the region from which the county
was drawn was drained to the last drop in defense of the Confederacy, the
State nor the people of the county have ever sought to change the name.
When Jefferson Davis is thus interpreted in the North and West for which
he spent his youth and prime then will justice rejoice. The county has
a land surface of 578 square miles. It is located in the southwestern part
of the State and the counties of Lawrence, Franklin, Copiah, Pike and Amite
were divided to form its area. The act located the seat of justice at Brookhaven.
Lincoln is bounded on the north by Copiah County, on the east by Lawrence
County, on the south by Pike and Amite counties and on the west by Franklin
and Jefferson counties. It is in the heart of the long leaf pine region
and its timber has always constituted its most valuable asset.
Brookhaven, on the Illinois Central railroad
which is one of the most thriving and progressive of the smaller cities
of the State, is the county seat and largest town in the county. It has
a population of 4,700 (1920), is an important industrial center, has several
planing mills, foundries, machine shops, cotton gins, grist mill, etc.,
and is the seat of Whitworth Female College, founded in 1859, and one of
the best female colleges in the State. Other towns are Norfield with a
population of over 1,000 and Bogue Chitto, about 600, and the smaller towns
of Montgomery, Hartman, Thayer and Derby, all on the railroad. The Illinois
Central railroad runs through the center of the county from north to south
and two short branches extend east from Brookhaven and Norfield, giving
the county excellent rail transportation. Wesson, a manufacturing center
of importance, is just across the northern border of the county, in Copiah,
and is an important market for agricultural products in the northern part
of Lincoln. Owing chiefly to her wealth of timber resources and to the
prominence of the lumbering industry, Lincoln has passed the great majority
of her sister counties in the total value of manufactured products, which
had attained the very respectable total of $3,400,000 in 1919. The principal
streams in the county are the Bogue Chitto, Amite, Homochitto and Bayou
Pierre rivers, which with their tributaries are extensively used in logging
operations. The general surface of the region is undulating—level on the
bottoms. The soil is sandy loam on the ridges and fertile on the numerous
bottoms.
The industries of Lincoln County mostly
relate to its timber and lumber, and its score of sawmills and like establishments
distribute among the workmen more than $650,000 annually in wages. The
crops of cereals, cotton, vegetables, hay and forage, etc., were valued
in 1919 at $3,467,000. More than 34,800 acres of its area were devoted
to the raising of cotton, which, when prepared for the market, amounted
to over 8,000 bales. The county had a population of more than 24,000 people
in 1920. Its schools and churches are good and no county in the State has
a brighter outlook for the future.
