.
Yazoo
County
YAZOO COUNTY
Chapter XLVIII, pages 862-865
Yazoo County, one of the largest, richest
and most interesting counties in the State, was established January 21,
1823. It is situated in the West-central part of the State, in the fertile
valley of the Yazoo River, and was created at the same time as the county
of Copiah, out of the large county of Hinds. It formed part of the territory
acquired from the Choctaws in 1820, long known as the “New Purchase.” The
original act defined its boundaries as follows: “Beginning at a point on
Big Black River, where the northern boundary line of township seven intersects
the same; thence due east along said line to where it strikes Pearl River;
thence up said river to where the Choctaw boundary line crosses the same;
thence along said boundary line to where it strikes the Mississippi River;
thence down said river to the northern boundary line of Warren County;
thence along said boundary line to Big Black River; thence with the same
to the beginning.” It thus included within its original limits the present
counties of Washington, Holmes, Issaquena, and Sharkey, and parts of the
counties of Madison and Sunflower. In 1918 it made its last donation of
territory to the new county of Humphreys and was reduced to its present
area of 905 square miles. The county is of a very irregular shape, and
is bounded on the north by Humphreys County, on the northeast by Holmes
County, on the south and southeast by Hinds and Madison counties, the Big
Black River forming the line of division, on the west by Warren, Issaquena
and Sharkey counties, the Yazoo forming part of the boundary division,
and on the northwest by Washington County.
When Yazoo County was first established,
the seat of justice was located at Beattie’s Bluff, on the Big Black River,
twelve or fifteen miles northwest of Canton. The first courthouse and the
other buildings of the settlement were made of hewn logs. When, in 1829,
the county seat was moved to Benton, the town dwindled away, and its site
is now a cultivated field. In 1828, William Y. Gadberry of South Carolina
entered the tract of land on which Benton was built. It was a place of
importance in the early days and was incorporated in 1836. Its first log
courthouse was replaced by a fine two story brick building, and it contained
a school house, churches and many elegant residences. Its early lawyers
were R.S. Holt, J.R. Burrus, Ronan Harden, Spencer M. Grayson, Jno. W.
Battle and W.R. Miles; its physicians, J.W. Morough, Ben Hagerman, J.B.
Wilkinson, Wm. Yandell; and its merchants James Rawlins, E. and N. O’Reilly,
Geo. Fisher, R.T. Jennings, Alex. McGaughey, and Jas. Blundell. When Yazoo
City became the seat of justice in 1849, the place declined, and it is
now a village going to ruin. The rich region embraced in Yazoo County was
rapidly settled after its organization, by a splendid body of pioneers,
who poured into the region from the older parts of Mississippi, and from
the Carolinas, Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky and Tennessee. By 1830 the county
had attained a population of 6,500, and by 1837 it had acquired a population
of 11,884, including slaves. Since 1850, its population has been as follows,
the noticeable decrease from 1910 to 1920 being due to its territorial
reduction in the formation of Humphreys County: 1850, 14,418; 1860, 22,373;
1870, 17,279; 1880, 33,845; 1890, 36,394; 1900, 43,948; 1910, 46,672; 1920,
37,149.
[Representative and
Senator from Mississippi. Born in Memphis, TN, but relocated in
Yazoo City. After
public ife he lived on his plantation, ‘Cedar Grove,’ near Yazoo City,
until his death there September
27, 1932]
Yazoo City, the county seat, one
of the finest small cities of the State, was known as Manchester until
1838, and is the largest and most important town in the county. It is located
on the left bank of the Yazoo River, near the center of the county, and
in 1920 had a population of 5,244. It is a center for the cotton trade
and an important manufacturing point. It is in the heart of the best cotton
growing district in the world, especially for the production of the “long
staple” cotton needed for the making of the finer grades of cloths, and
near at hand are abundant supplies of valuable timber, cypress, various
kinds of oaks, red gum, beech, hickory, etc. Its shipping facilities are
excellent, both by water and rail. The Yazoo River is navigable for large
steamers throughout the year, and the city is at the junction of the Illinois
Central and the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley railroads. It suffered a
disastrous fire in 1904, but has since been rebuilt and is now larger than
before. It was also burned by General Arthur in 1864, and rebuilt soon
after the war. Yazoo is the home county of John Sharp Williams, so long
the brilliant Democratic leader in both houses of congress. Bentonia, Satartia
and Vaughan are among the more important villages in the county. Besides
the Yazoo River, which traverses the county in a winding course for about
140 miles, and the Big Black River, which forms its southeastern boundary,
there are numerous tributary creeks of these streams and Lakes George and
Wolf.
The main line of the Illinois Central railroad
passes through the eastern part of the county, and the Yazoo branch of
the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley enters the county from the northwest
and runs through Yazoo City to Jackson. The western two-fifths of the county
are in the Yazoo and Mississippi bottoms, and that section has all the
famed fertility of that part of the State. The other three-fifths of the
county are undulating, with a narrow strip of the Bluff formation along
its western edge about the center of the county. A large section is still
heavily timbered. The soil varies in character, but is practically all
rich and fertile. Taken all in all, Yazoo County is excelled by no large
area in the State in the variety and value of its natural and developed
resources.
The statistics published in the national
census for 1920, covering the preceding year, give the value of the farm
property of Yazoo County at $23,015,000, as compared with $13,032,000 in
1910, and $7,671,000 in 1900. Its crops were estimated at $6,800,000, of
which the cereals accounted for $1,559,000; but in that prodigious item
of “all other crops” ($4,457,000) cotton cuts the bulking figure. More
than 76,000 acres were devoted to that crop in 1919, and from that area
were raised an amount equal to nearly 20,000 bales. The agriculturists
of Yazoo County number some 6,600, of whom 5,100 are negroes. The live
stock of the county, valued at $3,169,000, is divided as a great source
of wealth as follows: Mules, $1,176,000; horses, $606,000; dairy cattle,
$410,000; swine, $370,000. In the last named branch of the live stock industry
Yazoo County stands second among the counties of the State. Yazoo County
horticulturists have done much in the cultivation of peaches, apples, pears,
plums and prunes, and considerable income is derived also from the harvest
of pecans and other nuts. The industries founded on the considerable tracts
of timber lands which still remain are noted in the census. The 29 establishments
of that nature are reported as having realized an output valued at $2,285,000
in 1919.
Return to
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MSGenWeb Home
Source:
Mississippi The Heart of the South - By Dunbar Rowland, LL.D - Director
of the Mississippi State Department of Archives and History. Vol.
II Illustrated. Chicago-Jackson; The S. J. Clarke Publishing
Company, 1925. Public Domain
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