Pike County Mississippi
MSGenWeb
PREWITT
The Prewett family was one of
the earliest settlers in the county. Elisha Prewett
and his wife, Anna Huccabee, came from Hancock,
Georgia and settled in what is now Magnolia. Elisha, the son
of Maston and Mary Prewitt of Virginia, was born
in Hancock, Georgia in 1789. The first mention of Elisha is in the Pike
County Tax Rolls of 1823.
Their son, Ansel Huccabee Prewett, was born in Georgia in 1813, and is considered the "Father of Magnolia." When the railroad was expanding north from New Orleans, Ansel had the foresight to know that if the railroad passed through an area, people would settle near the railroad and businesses would want to also locate there. He gave the railroad a right of way through his property, and hired George Clark, a surveyor from New Orleans, to lay out the configuration of the town. People started buying land to build on, and the community started developing. The railroad through town was completed in 1856.
Ansel Prewett was appointed Sheriff of Magnolia by Governor Alcorn in 1870. On January 3, 1872, while escorting a prisoner, James W. Head, to Jackson by train, Ansel Prewett was ambushed near Bogue Chitto Station and killed by friends of the prisoner.
Ansel and his wife Julia Ann Raborn had six children: James Smiley, William Harrison, Martha Ann, Mary Ann, Sarah Ann, and Elisha Taylor Prewett. He and his second wife, Lucinda Barron, had one daughter, Naomi Eveline
who married David Vaughan.