DeKalb, MS

The general store of S.D. Stennis, located on the northwest corner of the courthouse square in DeKalb. The photo is probably in 1913 when the store opened. The store was founded by S.D. and his brother Hampton Howell Stennis, Sr. and operated over the years mostly by Thomas A., son of S.D. In the first floor and in 1972, Eddie J. Briggs, attorney, occupied the first floor and in 1974 he bought the building. Occupants upstairs have included the early John C. Stennis, attorney and U.S. Senator; John D. Henderson, an investigator/speculator (who also lived there); John McCulley, attorney; and the Beatrice Smith Beauty Shop.

Charlie Rosenbaum, land owner and businessman and the first president of the Commercial Bank in DeKalb, serving from 1914-1932.

Sciple's Mill

The following inages were donated by Brandon Henderson. Thank you, Brandon, for sending these for Kemper County researchers! Please click on the image for a larger view.

 

Historical Background of DeKalb
Compiled by McRae Limerick, March 2002

"Back of the name DeKalb is a wealth of romance and historical material."In the past, I have wandered across some of the battlefields where Baron DeKalb let American troops to victory either by direct assault or by strategy. I have been on the battle field of Pine Tree Creek at Camden, South Carolina, where DeKalb was killed in charging Cornwallis's Army one morning before day (Baron Johnann de Kalb was was mortally wounded, having received 11 wounds. He was brought into Camden and died three days later, August 19, 1780. He was given a full Masonic military funeral by the British.), and I have been at DeKalb's grave under the steps of the old Revolutionary Court House on Main Street in Camden. I have leaned against the iron fence that surrounds the little red brick Presbyterian Church at Camden, inside of which Marquis de Lafayette, friend of Washington and French Revolutionary patriot, laid the cornerstone of the DeKalb Monument in 1829. I have also been in the tunnel tthat DeKalb supervised the Ninety Six South Carolina, and in the old Geiger home where a romance between the grizzled old war hero and a charming girl of nineteen had its beginning.
Emily, a famed Revolutionary War heroine, with whom the doughty old warrior carried on his romance is buried on the battlefield across the Congaree river near Cayses' west of Columbia, South Carolina.

The name of Emily Geiger will live in history and romance as long as the name of DeKalb is honored as a hero of the Revolutionary War. For it was she who carried DeKalb's important message from the Ninety Six to General Francis Marion somewhere on the Santee, that led to the retreat of Cornwallis to Yorktown where he surrendered. For a day and night, Emily urged Black Dan, her blooded Arabian horse, southward to Marion's rendezvous. At Cayeses, where the British officers were attending a dance, a drunken sentinel challenged Emily, but seeing she was a woman, let her pass. Emily's love for DeKalb and the neglect of a drunken British soldier contributed to Cornwallis' retreat from the Carolinas, a thing that led to his surrender and the recognition of America's independence.

This story appeared in the Kemper County Messenger, Aug 12, 1936 by Colonel Jim Walton.

From "Kemper County, Mississippi - A Pictorial History", placed here with permission by the Kemper County Historical Commission.