SUNFLOWER COUNTY
Chapter XLIV, pages 826-826
Sunflower County is a long narrow strip
of land in the northwestern part of the State and lies entirely within
the fertile region of the Yazoo Delta. It was christened from the river
of the same name which is its distinguishing natural feature. The county
was formed February 15, 1844, from the county of Bolivar, and its original
limits were defined as follows: “Beginning at the corner of townships 24
and 25, of ranges 4 and 5 west, thence east between townships 24 and 25,
to the line between ranges 2 and 3 west; thence south between ranges 2
and 3 west to the line between townships 21 and 22; thence east between
townships 21 and 22 to the Tallahatchie River; thence down the Tallahatchie
River, and down the Yazoo River to the point where the old Choctaw boundary
line intersects it; thence with the said boundary line north, forty-six
degrees west, to the point where the line between ranges 4 and 5 west,
intersects that line; thence north with the line between ranges 4 and 5
west, to the place of beginning.” In 1871, a large portion of the eastern
area of the county was taken to assist in the formation of Leflore County,
and its western and southern limits were extended at the expense of Washington
and Bolivar counties. In 1918, Sunflower County contributed from its southern
territory to the newest county of Humphreys, and its area was thus reduced
to 674 square miles. It is therefore now bounded on the north by Coahoma
County, on the east by Tallahatchie and Leflore counties, on the south
by Humphreys County and a small section of Washington, and on the west
by Washington and Bolivar counties.
On March 15, 1871, when a large portion
of Sunflower County was cut off to form the new county of Leflore, the
county seat was moved from McNutt to a new town to be called Johnsonville,
at the junction of Mound Bayou with the Sunflower River. Eleven years later
in 1882, by vote of the people, the county seat was again moved—this time
to a point about four miles west of the Sunflower River on Indian Bayou,
first called Eureka, but since that time known as Indianola. With the advent
of the Georgia Pacific, now the Southern railway, a few years later, the
town of Baird grew up one mile north of Johnsonville and the latter town
soon ceased to exist. Gov. B.G. Humphreys, was an early settler in this
county, as were James J. Chenning, G.B. Wilds, Col. Eli Waits, J.Y. McNeil,
Col. Hezekiah McNabb, Ezekiel McNabb, Maj. Frank Hawkins and Capt. John
Hawkins. The first State Senators to represent the county were Felix Lebauve
and D.C. Sharpe of De Soto County. The earliest representatives were J.J.
Chenning, G.B. Wilds and Ezekiel McNabb.
The present county site, Indianola, is
a flourishing and rapidly growing town. It is on the line of the Southern
railway and around it are some of the largest and richest plantations in
the State. In 1890, Indianola had a population of only 630 people, which
had increased to 1,098 in 1910 and to 2,112 in 1920. There are a number
of other thriving towns in the county, among which are mentioned Ruleville,
north of the central part of the county with a population of over 1,000;
Drew, Inverness, Rome, and Sunflower village.
The county is well supplied with railroad
facilities, as the Southern railway crosses the southern part from west
to east and the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley, with its branches, accommodates
other sections. So that the people, crops and live stock are readily moved
to all parts of the county and the outside country. The Sunflower River
also furnishes transportation during certain months of the year; other
streams are Mound, Jones, Indian and Porter’s bayous and Quiver River.
Sunflower is one of the wealthiest counties
in the State and no agricultural section of Mississippi has developed more
rapidly within the past twenty years. The census of 1920 tells the unadorned
but striking tale. It is a typical section of modern Southland, with its
more than 8,000 negro farmers working, with their thousands of mules, the
great plantations of cotton, tending millions of live stock and cultivating
extensive farms of corn and other grains, not to mention vegetables for
home consumption and the market. The 1,500 white farmers of the county
are both managers and workers, and give stability to the rural communities.
The entire farm property of Sunflower County
is valued by the census of 1920 at $11,982,000, and the crops for 1919,
at $ 15,590,000—more than the value of the producing property. After the
cereals and other grains and hay, forage, vegetables, fruits and nuts,
are enumerated and their harvest valued, “all other crops” (including cotton)
are given as $13,498,000. The acreage of the cotton fields was estimated,
in 1919, at more than 150,000. Sunflower County stands second of all the
counties in the State, as a raiser of mules and dairy cattle, being exceeded
in the valuation of the former by Bolivar and in the latter by Attala County.
The county under observation, in 1919, had mules valued at $2,690,000,
and dairy cattle at $605,000. It is also a prolific raiser of swine, only
six other counties in the state placing a larger valuation on this class
of live stock—$294,000.
