WASHINGTON COUNTY
Chapter XLVIII, pages 848-851
Washington County, one of the richest counties
in the Delta region of the Mississippi Valley, was created January 29,
1827, by an act which recited that “So much of the counties of Yazoo and
Warren as lies west of the Yazoo River, beginning on the right bank of
said river, where the Choctaw boundary line strikes the same; thence along
said boundary to the Mississippi River; thence down the said river, to
a point on the said river, where the east and west line between townships
seventeen and eighteen strikes the same; thence along said line, to where
the same strikes the Yazoo River; thence up the said last mentioned river,
to the place of beginning, shall constitute a county, which shall be called
the county of Washington.” This created a triangular area, with the base
on the Mississippi River and the apex on the Yazoo River. Sections two
to nine of the same act organized the county. An act of February 12, 1828,
declared the line between Warren and Washington counties to begin on the
east bank of the Mississippi, “at the upper end of the plantation of Nerry
Henley, and run so as to intersect the line between the counties of Warren
and Yazoo, where the same strikes the Yazoo River”, and appointed commissioners
to run the line. February 9, 1839, the line between the said counties was
defined again as follows: ”commencing at the point on the Yazoo River,
where the southern boundary of township nine, range six west of the Choctaw
district, intersects it; thence running west on the southern boundary of
township nine, range six, seven, eight, and nine, west to the Mississippi
river.” January 23, 1844, all that part of Washington County south of a
line commencing on the Mississippi River between townships 13 and 14, and
running east, between said townships, to the western boundary of Yazoo
County, was taken to form the county of Issaquena. It later surrendered
small portions of its territory to Bolivar and Sunflower counties and finally,
on March 29, 1876, it surrendered other portions to help form the new county
of Sharkey. Again, in 1918, part of its territory went to the new county
of Humphreys. As now constituted it is an irregular area of land, with
a surface of 723 square miles. It is bounded on the north by Bolivar County,
on the east by Sunflower and Humphreys counties, on the south by Sharkey
and Issaquena counties, and on the west by the Mississippi River. It was
named for President George Washington and was one of the numerous counties
formed from the so-called “New Purchase”, acquired from the Choctaws by
the treaty of Doak’s Stand, October 20, 1820.
The county lies wholly within the fertile
Yazoo Delta, and many settlers of character and wealth were attracted to
the rich region before its organization, and during the ‘30s and ‘40s,
coming from the states of Kentucky, Georgia, Alabama, the Carolinas and
the older parts of Mississippi. From South Carolina came Col. Wade Hampton,
the son of Maj. Gen. Wade Hampton, and his two sons, Gen. Wade Hampton,
afterwards Senator from South Carolina and Christopher Hampton, Robert
J. Andrew and Dr. Charles Turnbull, Andrew and Ambrose Knox, and Thomas
B. Kershaw; from Kentucky came Elisha Warfield, Thomas B. Warfield, Albert
Metcalf, Captain Henry and Edward P. Johnson, George W. and Junius Ward;
from Mississippi came Howell Hinds, son of Gen. Thos. Hinds, Col. Henry
W. Vick, Capt. John Willis, and Benjamin Smith, an old resident of Claiborne
County. Other early settlers were William B. Prince, who gave his name
to the old town of Princeton and was the first Representative of Washington
County in 1828; William Blanton, whose plantation embraced part of the
site of Greenville; Hon. Jacob S. Yerger, Wm. F. Jeffries, Sheriff, A.
Knox, J.Y. Daster, Wm. Hunt, Andrew A.J. Paxton, and Samuel, Isaac and
Dr. William Worthington. Another prominent settler was Wm. A. Percy, of
Greenville, soldier, lawyer and publicist, whose untimely demise was a
distinct loss, not only to the Delta, but to the whole State. A list of
the county officers of Washington for 1827, the year of its organization,
follows: Wm. B. Cook, Judge of Probate; Philip A. Gilbert, Thomas Marney,
Associate Justices; William Prince, Assessor and Collector; Philip A. Gilbert,
County Treasurer; Geo. Shanks, William Brittain, Peter H. Bennett, Nimrod
Selsor, Joseph McGuire, Hiram Miller, James Bayne, Peter Wilkinson, Justices
of the Peace.
Princeton, the first county seat, was at
one time the chief town in the county. It was situated on the Mississippi
River, about ten miles above the present southern boundary, and once had
a population of about 600 people. After the county seat was removed to
Greenville, Princeton rapidly declined, and is now entirely extinct. The
old town of Greenville was a mile south of the present flourishing town
of that name, but having been partially destroyed during the war and inundated
by the river, the county seat was removed to the present point on the river.
Greenville has long been one of the largest and most prosperous towns in
the State; it had a population in 1900 of 7,642, in 1910 of 9,610 and in
1920, of 11,560. It is the center of a network of railroads now covering
the Delta. Located also on the Mississippi River, its shipping facilities
are favorable to its growth. It is the center of trade for the rich surrounding
country and has also become a manufacturing town of importance. According
to the census of 1920, it stands seventh among the industrial cities of
the State. In 1919, there were 32 manufactories within its limits, which
had over 800 employes, and turned out products to the value of $4,400,000.
The 52 establishments in the entire county employed about 1,200, disbursed
$1,000,000 in wages and were credited with products valued at $9,400,000.
The town of Leland, a few miles east of
Greenville, is also a growing place of 2,000 people favored with good railway
facilities. Hollandale and Arcola are other incorporated towns of promise.
The entire county is intersected by numerous
lines of railway belonging to the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley and the
Southern systems. Besides the Mississippi River on the west and the Yazoo
on the east, Deer Creek, Bogue Phalia and Black Bayou flow south through
the length of the county, and, with Lakes Lee, Swan, Silver, Washington
and Jackson, constitute the principal waters.
In the value of its farm property, Washington
County, according to the census of 1920, stands second in the State; Bolivar
County is first. The several items constituting the total value of this
class of property in Washington County are as follows: Lands, $46,376,272;
buildings, $6,081,417; implements and machinery, $1,365,088; live stock
on farms, $4,099,885. Total of farm property, $57,922,662. Of the live
stock, the chief source of wealth is found in the raising of mules, which
in 1919 were valued at $2,432,000; horses were second, estimated at $568,000,
dairy cattle at $500,000, and swine at $296,000. Washington County is third
among the Mississippi counties as a live stock country, and also third
as a producer of cotton. In 1919, there were 134,000 acres devoted to the
raising of cotton within its limits, and the production amounted to nearly
47,000 bales. The value of all its crops was $12,797,000. Incidentally,
the county is within the pecan belt of the Delta region, to which that
nut is native. These nuts are esteemed a very valuable food for swine,
but since they have come into such favor as food for people they are now
usually raised for the market. In 1919, the nut crop of Washington County
amounted to 53,000 pounds, mostly pecans.
