Memories of life in Tippah County

This project is still growing. Please help by sending in information. If you have a collection of memories or an unpublished history written about one of our communities, or old pictures of the towns or buildings please attach it to an email and send it along to me.

Blue Mountain
Blue Mountain History Photo links and a wonderful history of Mississippi Heights Academy.
My Daddy and the Doodle Bug - Article from the Southern Sentinel with memories of the first railroad through Blue Mountain

Brownfield
History of Brownfield with Pictures

Chalybeate
Chalybeate History

Clarysville
Elijah Ward and Elizabeth Austin Ward

Cotton Plant
Tippah Lodge- Paul J. Rainey Estate

Dumas
Dumas History

Falkner - Located in the heart of Tippah County, eight miles North of Ripley on Highway 15, it was founded after the Col. W. C. Falkner completed his railroad from Middleton to Pontotoc. Currently, Falkner is still a thriving town with a school serving grades K-12, several stores and churches.
Falkner Pictures

Jonesborough - Located in North Tippah between Walnut and Corinth, the Jonesborough community began in 1843 when Phineas Black purchased land along the Ripley-Pocahontas road and opened a store there. His business was a sure thing at the time because the stage line ran this road and used his store as one of it's stops. The store was used as a base for both Confederate and Union forces during the Civil War and was the Mustering point for Company "F", Tippah Highlanders of the 22nd Mississippi Regiment. The community became extinct after nearby Chalybeate was established.

Liberty
Liberty School Children (circa 1908)

Pine Grove

Ripley
Rapid Ramblings in Ripley A look at Falkner's Ripley
Tippah County Courthouse
First Monday Trade Day - 1916
Colonel William Clark Falkner - A biography
Education in Ripley - An collection of historical pictures.
Ripley Photographs - Businesses located in Ripley
Ripley Leaders ca. 1900
Memories of a Mississippi Boyhood - written by J. M. Wallace - Growing up in the first part of the 20th century in Ripley.

Tiplersville - Founded in the mid 1800's and named after George Tipler, Tiplersville is located in North Tippah just south of Walnut on Highway 15. Now there are only a couple of businesses and churches remaining. The first settlers of Tiplersville were the Tiplers, Tudors, Browns and Ray Families. In the late 1800's Robert Shannon moved his store there and later added a telegraph line to Middleton, TN. For many years and Dr. McIntyre had a medical pratice there and later became the Post Master.
Tiplersville Pictures
Sorghum Making - a picture of a gathering including the Alsups and the McCoy families
The Moore Family

Walnut
Walnut History and Pictures
Hensley Cotton Gin

Extinct towns:

Salem
Salem, originally quite prosperous, incorporated on May 11, 1837 and is thought to be the oldest town in old Tippah County, located eleven miles from what is now the county seat of Ashland in Benton County on Snow Creek. Original settlers were the Becks, the Hamers, the Leakes, the Caleb Brock Family, and Daniel B. Wright. Salem started it's decline before the War when settlers started moving closer to Holly Springs to be near the railroad, and was pretty much a goner by the time that nearby Ashland was named county seat of the newly formed Benton County in 1870. It is best known for the place where Nathan Bedford Forrest spent some of his childhood, a fact which did not help it's survival during the war. Today, no roads lead to what was once Salem, all that remains is the foundations of some buildings and an old cemetery that is in pretty bad shape.

Spring Hill
Spring Hill School Students ca. 1914

Spring Hill, was located 6 miles north of Salem. Among the first settlers were the McKenzie and the Hardaways. The village was about three miles south of Davis Mills on the Wolf River, which was near the present village of Michigan City. After the Central Railroad was completed shortly before fighting began, most of Spring Hill's business moved to Davis Mills.

Orizaba
Orizaba, originally called Johnson's Store, located on Pontotoc Ridge about six miles south of Ripley on the old New Albany road. The town was built around Cumberland Presbyterian Church that was organized shortly after the county was created. Sporting a population of 150, it had a good school, five business houses, among which were owned by Noah Roberts, W. T. Ratliff, and Robert I. Hill. During the War Between the States Orizaba suffered severely from raiding Union troops, who burned most of the town at various times. It was never rebuilt and all hope of revival vanished in 1886, when the railroad was routed through Blue Mountain instead of Pontotoc Ridge.

**These brief histories of the communities in Tippah were taken from History of Tippah County, Mississippi: The First Century by Andrew Brown and the Heritage of Tippah County Mississippi. Both books can be purchased by contacting the Ripley Library in Ripley, MS.

Melissa McCoy-Bell
Tippah County MSGENWEB Coordinator

Note: The photo in the header is of a crew working on the railroad in Tippah County, Mississippi around 1900.