WILKINSON COUNTY
Chapter XLVIII, pages 855-858
Situated in the extreme southwest corner
of Mississippi, Wilkinson County is historic ground. It was established
January 30, 1802, during the administration of Gov. W.C.C. Claiborne, and
was the fifth county to be erected in the new Territory. It was named for
Geri. James Wilkinson, in command of the United States troops during the
early territorial era of Mississippi. It was created by act of the General
Assembly, which recited that “The county of Adams shall be divided as follows,
to-wit: Beginning on the river Mississippi at the mouth of the Homochitto
River, thence running up the Homochitto River to Richards ferry, thence
by a line running due east to the western boundary of Washington County;
and all that tract of country south of the above described boundary, to
the line of demarcation, shall compose a county, which shall be called
Wilkinson.” From its territory lying east of a line drawn due north from
the thirty mile post, east of the Mississippi River, were subsequently
drawn the counties of Amite, Pike and the portion of Marion lying west
of the Pearl River. June 29, 1822, the river Homochitto was declared to
be the dividing line between the counties of Adams and Wilkinson, from
its mouth to its intersection with the basis meridian line; and from thence
the said river was made the line of demarcation between the counties of
Wilkinson and Franklin, as far as the mouth of Foster’s Creek. In 1846,
the north channel of the Homochitto, where it forms an island below the
lower or western Natchez and Woodville road was declared to be the boundary
between Wilkinson and Adams, and Tanzy Island was embraced within the limits
of Wilkinson. As now defined it has an area of about 17 townships, or 667
square miles.
This historic region composed the southern
part of the old Natchez District, and contained some of the earliest settlements
of white people in the State. During the latter part of the eighteenth
century, several large settlements had been made in Wilkinson County, along
the Homochitto River, Buffalo Bayou and in the vicinity of the Mississippi
River. The whole interior of the present State of Mississippi, with the
exception of a small district on the Tombigbee River, was at this time
in the sole and undisputed possession of the Choctaw and Chickasaw Indians.
Many of these early settlers were Anglo-Americans, and some were of Spanish
and French descent, due to the successive occupancy of the region by France,
England and Spain. Others had emigrated to the district from the United
States after the close of the Revolutionary war, under the inducements
held out by the Spanish authorities. After the treaty of San Lorenzo in
1795 many more came from the western states, and from the Carolinas and
Georgia. The census of 1810 shows that Wilkinson had attained a population
of 5,068, and by 1837 it had a total population of nearly 13,000, including
slaves. The year after General Wilkinson came to Natchez, in the summer
of 1798, he erected a military post at the first highland point on the
Mississippi, a few miles above the Spanish line of demarcation, and called
it “Fort Adams.” The historic old place is now a small village. A few of
the early settlers of Wilkinson County at the beginning of the last century
were George Poindexter, Daniel Williams, Abram M. Scott, John Joor, Gerard
C. Brandon, Joseph Johnson, all members of the Constitutional Convention
of 1817, and elsewhere mentioned in this work; Judge Edward McGehee, Peter
Smith, father of Coteworth Pinckney Smith, Chief Justice of the High Court
of Errors and Appeals, John Dunkley, Thos. Kirkham, John L. Lewis, Archibald
McGehee, London Davis, Hugh Davis, Douglas Cooper, Gen. Wm. L. Brandon,
and Wm. and James A. Ventress. Few, if any counties in the State, can furnish
a roll of names as distinguished in the annals of the commonwealth and
the above list might be indefinitely extended. The following men were commissioned
Justices of the Peace, February, 2, 1802: John Ellis, Hugh Davis, John
Collins, Richard Butler, William Ogden and Thomas Dawson.
Courts were first held at Fort Adams and
Pinckneyville, and a little later the seat of justice was moved to the
present county site of Woodville, which was incorporated in 1811. Woodville
is now a place of 1,000 inhabitants, situated in the south central part
of the county at the terminus of the Bayou Sara and Woodville branch of
the Y. & M. V. railroad. This old railroad is noteworthy as one of
the first railroads to be built in the United States, and is the oldest
line in Mississippi. It was incorporated by Woodville people in 1831, under
the name of The West Feliciana Railroad Company. Judge Edward McGehee was
one of the active promoters of the road. Centerville is a place of some
importance in the southeastern part of the county on the railroad, and
has a population of 800 people. It is in both Wilkinson and Amite counties.
Rosetta, Wilkinson, Perrytown, Darrington, Pinckneyville, and Turnbull
are even smaller villages. Besides the line of railroad to Woodville above
mentioned, the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley railroad crosses the extreme
southeastern corner of the county, and enters the county again at the extreme
northeastern corner. Though the first county in the State to build a railroad,
it is rather poorly supplied with facilities of that nature. Besides the
Mississippi and Homochitto rivers on its western and northern borders,
the principal streams are Buffalo, Percy, Smith, Big Pine and Ford creeks,
and Bayou Sara.
The portion of the county lying west of
Woodville, or the Bayou Sara country as far as the Mississippi River, is
of great fertility, with a warm, loamy and generous soil. That section
of the county lying north of a line drawn due east from Woodville to Amite
County line is generally poor in soil and products. The third division
of the county lying south of the line drawn east from Woodville, is a fine
agricultural country, gently undulating, and possesses a soil only a little
less fertile than the first or western section. The eastern half of the
county lies in the Long Leaf Pine region and the western half in the Bluff
formation of the State. The products of the county are cotton, corn, oats,
sugar cane, sorghum, peas, peanuts and all the grasses. Fruits, especially
grapes, and all the vegetables grow in great luxuriance and abundance.
Although interesting from the standpoint
of history, Wilkinson is not wealthy materially and not considered one
of the progressive counties of the State. The value of its farm property
is given in the census reports for 1920 at $5,578,000 and the value of
all its crops at $1,691,000. The farmers have given considerable attention
to the raising of vegetables from the rich bottom lands, and realized $353,000
from their efforts in 1919. Fruits, especially peaches, form a source of
income and nearly 10,000 bushels of all varieties were produced from 7,000
trees. Apples, plums and prunes are also in this list of Wilkinson County
products. Its live stock, valued at $878,000, is chiefly confined to horses,
mules and dairy cattle.
