YALOBUSHA COUNTY
Chapter XLVIII, pages 860-862
This is one of the north-central counties
of the State which is old and conservative. It was established on December
23, 1833, and most of its area lies within the territory acquired from
the Choctaw Indians in the treaty of Dancing Rabbit, 1830. The original
act defined its boundaries as follows: “Beginning on the line between townships
21 and 22, at the point at which the line between 8 and 9 east crosses
the line between townships 21 and 22, and running from thence north, with
the said line between ranges 8 and 9 east, thirty miles; from thence west,
to the line between ranges 3 and 4 east, from thence south with said line
between ranges 3 and 4 east, to the line between townships 21 and 22, and
from thence east to the place of beginning.” It was originally a large
county, containing an area of 25 townships of 900 square miles, but surrendered
part of its territory to Calhoun County in 1852, and a large part of its
southern area to Grenada, when that county was created in 1870. It now
contains an area of 490 square miles, and is bounded on the north by Panola
and Lafayette counties, on the east by Calhoun County, on the south by
Grenada County and on the west by Tallahatchie County. The old boundary
line between the Choctaw and Chickasaw cessions bisects it from northwest
to southeast. Its name “Yalobusha” is an Indian word, meaning “tadpole
place”, and was suggested by the river of the same name which waters its
territory. Emigration was rapid into this region during the ‘30s and early
‘40s, from the older states on the east and north and from the older settled
parts of Mississippi. By the year 1837, Yalobusha had attained a population
of 4,355 whites, and 4,215 slaves; by the year 1840, there were 12,248
people in the county including slaves, and 17,258 in 1850.
James D. Haile, the first white person
born in the county, has just recently died. The old man was a storehouse
of local historical information. Three of the earliest settlements in the
county were at Hendersonville, Sardinia and Preston, all of which are now
extinct. Hendersonvifle was four miles south of Coffeeville on the site
of an old Indian village. Says Captain Lake, who lived there in 1834: “It
was here that Col. T.C. McMacken, the celebrated hotel keeper, in the early
history of Mississippi, began his career. The mercantile firms of this
town in 1834 were: Martin, Edwards & Co., John H. McKenney, Armour,
Lake & Bridges, H. S. & W. Lake and McCain & Co. The physicians
were Thomas Vaughn, Robert Malone, and _____ Murkerson. The following citizens
were then living at that place: Thomas B. Ives, Murdock Ray, Justice of
the Peace; Stephen Smith, blacksmith; Alfred McCaslin, blacksmith, and
Joshua Weaver, Constable.” Beaten by Coffeeville in its efforts to become
the county seat, the town rapidly decayed. Sardinia, on the Craig plantation
near the Yocona River one mile north of the present church of Sardinia,
was once a place of about 150 people. Here lived in the early days, the
Bradfords, Kuykendalls, Bensons, Craigs, Carringtons, Reeds, and Dr. Moore.
The town had become dead by 1856, owing to the rivalry of the towns along
the railroad. Preston was located near Scobey, and about fourteen miles
north of Grenada. Settled in 1835, it once had about 250 people and was
incorporated in 1840. Here lived the Simmons family, the Harpers, Bridgers,
Townes, Calhouns, Doctors Sutton, Payne, Neville, and the Rev. Hayward;
Duke & Co., and Evans & Co. were mercantile firms. When the station
of Garner sprang up on the railroad in 1858, most of Preston’s population
moved there. A few of the earliest settlers of Oakland, a pleasant little
town in the western portion of the county, besides those above mentioned
were William W. Mitchell, Green D. Moore, Grief Johnson, Stewart Pipkin,
Charles J.F. Wharton, Rev. Wm. A. Bryan, John Lemons, Wm. Metcalf, Dr.
W.B. Rowland, Dempsey H. Hicks, William Winter, Robert Edsington. Some
of the early county officers were: David Mabray and James H. Barfield,
Sheriffs; Matthew Clinton and John W. McLemore, Judges of the Probate Court;
Davidson M. Rayburn, Clerk of the Probate Court; Robert C. Malone and Murdoch
Ray, County Treasurers; Virgil A. Stewart, Thos. B. Ives, Wm. B. Wilbourn,
Robert Edrington, Allen Walker, James Minter, George Thompson, and L.R.
Stuart were all early members of the legislature for Yalobusha County.
The county seat was located at Coffeeville,
March 27, 1834 and the place received its name in honor of Gen. John Coffee.
The first county court was held the same year, presided over by Judge Matthew
Clinton. It is now a town of about 400 inhabitants, on the line of the
Illinois Central railroad.
The surrounding country is fertile and
well cultivated. Coffeeville is provided with water works and electric
lights and has a large trade in Yalobusha and Calhoun counties.
The largest town in the county is Water
Valley (population in 1920, 4,315), situated in the northeastern corner
on the line of the Illinois Central. The city is growing and forms a second
circuit and chancery court district, being therefore one of the county
seats. In the immediate neighborhood of Water Valley is an abundance of
brick clay, as well as a large amount of valuable timber, so it is a manufacturing
place of some importance. Oakland in the extreme western part of the county
on the Illinois Central line is one of the oldest and best towns in the
county. Tillatoba and Scobey are incorporated villages, and stations on
the Memphis division of the railroad mentioned upon which the county mainly
depends for its transportation. The county is well watered by the Yocona
and Schoona rivers and their numerous tributaries and numbers of good mill
sites are available. The general surface of the region is undulating and
hilly, but level on the river and creek bottoms. It is on the western edge
of the Yellow Loam section of the State, and the soil generally is a mixture
of clay and sand and fairly productive, but very fertile on the bottom
lands.
The student of facts and figures is referred
to the census of 1920 as to the agricultural standing of Yalobusha County.
The gleanings especially pertinent show that its farm property in 1919
was valued at $7,545,000, of which the live stock represented $1,324,000;
that all its crops were estimated at $2,926,000, and that nearly 18,000
acres of its area was cultivated to cotton and yielded a crop amounting
to 6,800 bales. The county is much favored by horticulturists and in 1919
its 22,000 trees of bearing age yielded a fruit crop of 14,000 bushels.
