UNION COUNTY
Chapter XLVIII, pages 842-844
Union County, which was established July
7, 1870, during the reconstruction era, was named to express the existing
sentiment between the states. It is situated in the northeastern part of
the State between the counties of Tippah and Pontotoc, from which it was
originally organized. In 1874 part of Lee County was annexed to it, thus
making its present land area of 412 square miles.
A little north of New Albany, the present
county seat, was the old Indian trading post of Alberson, called for the
first citizen and trader at the place. Booker Foster and Moses Collins
were merchants there in the early days, as were John N. Wiley, and Powers
and Morgan, who manufactured wheat fans here from 1839 to 1844. Moses Collins
built a good grist mill and sawmill in 1840 on the present site of New
Albany, and the business of the older settlement soon moved to that place.
Not even a trace of the old village is left. During the late ‘30s and early
‘40s the States of Alabama, Georgia, Virginia, Tennessee, and both the
Carolinas, contributed many settlers of wealth and enterprise to this region
of the State, among whom may be mentioned, Rev. Joseph Edwards, Col. John
S. Doxey, Berry and John Hodges, Allen and Barton Sloan, Samuel Knowles,
William D. Sloan, Vincent and John Wages, William Hamilton, Davis Pannel,
Doctor Thompson, Ira Kemp, Frank and Alexander Morgan, Dr. H.N. Moss, John
Y. and Milas Nesbit, Ezekiel Millsaps, Zack Tate, J.C. and Wiley D. Robbins,
Carey Snider, B.C.S. and Dr. Porter McAllister, Dr. M. Wilson, John and
Robert McAllister, Rev. Isaac Smith, Eli Cornwell, Benjamin Parker, William
Liddell and Rev. James Boswell. In the year 1857 Moses Parker was conducting
a school at the old town of Myrtle, two miles south of the present town
of Myrtle, on the line of the Kansas City, Memphis & Birmingham railroad,
(St. Louis & San Francisco System). From an incident of the time, the
place was first known as “Candy Hill,” but after the War, when a postoffice
was established here, it took the name of Myrtle. Hill and Murray, and
W.C. and B.F. Whittington were merchants in old Myrtle, and it had an excellent
school conducted by Chosen Myers. The advent of the railroad two miles
away caused the removal of the postoffice and business of the old town
to the new station of the same name on the railroad. The postoffice and
little store on the old site are now known as “Avanelle.”
The county seat of Union is as stated the
thriving town of New Albany, situated near the center of the county, on
the line of the Gulf, Mobile & Northern railroad, where it crosses
the Kansas City, Memphis & Birmingham railroad. The town grew from
a place of 548 inhabitants in 1890 to one of 2,032 in 1910, and 2,531 in
1920. It is on what is known as the “Pontotoc Ridge,” the highest land
in the State, has a rich farming country all about it, with plenty of good
springs and water, and is rapidly growing as a business place, and shipping
point. Wallerville, Blue Springs and Myrtle, above mentioned, are other
prosperous railroad villages in the county. The two lines of road mentioned
provide the region with excellent shipping facilities in every direction.
The streams are the Tallahatchie River, which runs through the center of
the county, and its tributary creeks the Oconitahatchie, Wilhite, Locks,
Lappatubba, and Jones; the head streams of the West Fork of the Tombigbee
River take their rise in the eastern part of the county.
The value of the farm property of Union
County, as given by the census of 1920, was $9,130,000 in 1919. The value
of all its crops raised in the latter year was placed at $9,638,000, and
of its live stock, as listed within its borders, at $1,672,000. That Union
is quite a dairy region is indicated by the census enumerators who, estimated
its cattle bred for dairy purposes, and not for beef, as being worth more
than $430,000. This profitable class of live stock brought to the farmers,
in the shape of milk, cream, butter and cheese, products valued at $262,000.
