TUNICA COUNTY
Chapter XLVIII, pages 840-842
This is one of the rich counties of northwestern
Mississippi located in the Mississippi Delta. It was established February
9, 1836, and is one of the twelve counties formed in that year from the
Chickasaw Indian cession of 1832. It was named for the Tunica Indian tribe,
the word meaning “the people.” As originally established, Tunica County
embraced an area of about 19 townships, or 684 square miles, and its limits
were thus defined: “Beginning at the northwestern corner of Tallahatchie
County, and running thence due north to the dividing line between the Choctaw
and Chickasaw tribes of Indians; thence with the said dividing line to
the Mississippi River; thence up the said river, to the point where the
line between townships 2 and 3 intersects the same; thence with the said
township line, to the line between ranges 9 and 10 west; thence south with
the said range line, and from its termination in a direct line to the northern
boundary of Tallahatchie County, and thence west with said northern boundary,
to the beginning.” In 1873 it surrendered a part of its territory to Tate,
and another portion in 1877 to Quitman, which reduced its area to 418 square
miles. The Mississippi River washes its entire western border, the county
of De Soto lies to the north and east, Tate and Panola counties on the
east, the Coldwater River now forming the boundary between Tunica and Tate,
and Quitman and Coahoma counties, on the south.
A few of the prominent early settlers of
the region were Walter H. Bell, the first representative from the county
in the lower house of the legislature: E.H. Bridges, Probate Judge; J.H.
Bridges, Sheriff; Joseph A. McNeely, Justice of the Peace; Wm. Camoon,
Probate Clerk; T.W. Floyd, Circuit Clerk; R.J. Thornton, _____ Smith, William
Phillips, James Porter, John Ballard, members of Board of Police, and Lorenzo
A. Besancon, S. May, T.M. Fletcher, R.H. Byrne, Alfred Cox, James D. Hallam
(Senator from Tunica 1837-1838), who were early members of the legislature
from Tunica county.
Tunica, the present county seat, is an
attractive and wide awake town of about 1,000 people, which was built up
on the line of the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley railroad and is a substantial
center of trade. Evansville, Hollywood, Robinsonville, Maud and Dundee
are some of the other stations along the line of that road. On the Mississippi
River are two of the early county seats, or what remains of them. Commerce
is the oldest town in the county, but did not compare as a flourishing
river center with Austin, the other county seat. At one time the latter
had a population of 2,000 people, with a large river and inland trade.
Tunica has the distinction of having within
its bounds the place where Hernando De Soto discovered the Mississippi
River, which, following authentic original records and historians generally,
was at or near Commerce Landing, situated on the old “Willow Point.”
Two lines of the Yazoo & Mississippi
Valley railroad run through the county from north to south, so that the
region is amply supplied with shipping facilities both by rail and water.
Besides the Mississippi River on the western border, and the Coldwater
River on the eastern border, other waters in the county are Buck’s Creek,
Coon Bayou, Flower Lake, Walnut Lake and Beaver Dam Lake. The entire county
is composed of level alluvial land of exceeding richness and fertility.
The rapid increase in the value of the
farm properties of Tunica County is shown in the census figures for the
past twenty years. In 1900, the valuation was placed at $4,000,000, in
1910 at $9,000,000, and in 1920 at $29,000,000. The statistics covering
1919 indicate that virtually the entire agricultural labor, as far as human
beings is concerned is performed by negroes. Less than 300 white farmers
were listed in the county, as compared with more than 4,600 negroes. The
crops, as a whole, were valued at $9,638,000, of which a large percentage
was realized from cotton. The area represented by the cotton fields of
Tunica County amounted to 84,500 acres, and 38,000 bales were sent out
in 1919. Thus the county was among the first half a dozen counties in Mississippi
as a producer of cotton. As the live stock operations of the region center
in the cultivation of the land, especially in the raising of cotton, the
chief attention in those lines is given to the raising of mules. In 1919,
the value of all the live stock in the county was placed at $2,025,000,
of which the mules were estimated at $1,465,000.
The natural riches of Tunica County have
constantly maintained an increasing population, with an overwhelming preponderance
of negroes. There was no check in the increase even during the war period
covered by 1860 and 1870. In 1850, there were 1,314 people in the county;
in 1870, 5,358, 1890, 12,158; 1910, 18,646; 1920, 20,044. The census of
1920 showed that there were about 2,000 whites and 18,000 negroes in the
county.
