Welcome to Prentiss County, my name is Jeff Kemp, and I am the coordinator for Prentiss County. This web site is part of a nationwide effort to collect genealogical information online. For more information about the national project, go to the USGenWeb Project.

History of Prentiss County

Prentiss County, which is located in the northeastern corner of the State, was created at the same time as Alcorn County (April 15, 1870), during the administration of Governor Alcorn, and received its name in honor of Seargent Smith Prentiss, the gifted statesman, jurist and orator. The county has a land surface of 409 square miles. Its territory was principally taken from that of old Tishomingo County, one of the numerous counties formed in 1836 from the Chickasaw cession of 1832. This county lies in the so-called rotten limestone or black prairie belt, and is bounded on the north by Alcorn County, on the east by Tishomingo County, on the south by Itawamba and Lee counties and on the west by Union and Tippah counties. In compliance with the act which created the new county, Governor Alcorn appointed the following county officers: Board of Supervisors, John R. Moore, President, J. M. Moore, Alonzo Bowdry, Joseph Rodgers, M. L. Martin; Henry C. Fields, Sheriff; W. H. Walton, Clerk of the Chancery Court and of the Board of Supervisors. J. M. Stone became the first State Senator for the county, and Hugh M. Street, elected Speaker of the House,  (1873-1874) was the first Representative in the lower house of the legislature.
History of Prentiss County.