Lawrence County, Mississippi

Lawrence County Cities, Towns & Places

In 1903 when a branch of the Gulf and Ship Island Railroad was built through the area a few miles north of Grange in Lawrence County, Franklin L. Riley, a merchant of Hebron, two miles to the east, donated land for a right of way for a distance of two miles provided the Railroad would locate a depot on his property. The Railroad agreed and the station was named New Hebron, the daughter of Hebron.

A word should be said at this point about our mother community. Hebron herself was a prosperous community at the turn of the century. It was a trade center settled by people of mixed European blood who in the early 1800's had come into the area from Georgia and the Carolinas and other states. If you read the census, you will find their names and where they came from as well as the names of all family members and anyone else who dwelled in their households. Some had large plantations and built impressive homes. The town was named Hebron probably after the Bible. It is said that the town of Hebron had the first high school between Jackson and the Gulf Coast. A Baptist Church was built in 1822, before Jackson was even thought of as a town, and the original church building is still used. The country store was the center of the community.

What happened to this thriving town of Hebron? As someone has put it, she was summoned by the whistle of a train. Stores and businesses were moved from Hebron in what is present day Jefferson Davis County to the new site with its railroad station. It is said that the town of New Hebron wasn't founded until the first train pulled into the station in 1904.

It was that train that hauled the wealth of timber from the region. It was that train that the people would hear rumbling through twice a day for many years. It was that train that became the object of many stories. One story, declared to be true, is told of Mr. Hartzog, a farmer who lived along the tracks at Grange south of town. One day as the train approached, Mr. Hartzog stopped the train. The ensuing conversation between farmer and train engineer took place: Mr. Hartzog to the engineer: Would you like to buy a pig? Engineer replies: no, I don't need a pig. Mr. Hartzog: Well, would your brother like to buy a pig? Engineer: I don't have a brother. Mr. Hartzog: Well, if you had a brother, do you think he would like to buy a pig?

There was no grand plan, but a new town was laid out, her main avenue being 100 feet wide and side streets 80 feet in width. Business houses sprang up while the track was being laid from Mendenhall to Monticello following the Silver Creek Valley. The town's founder, F. L. Riley, established the Hebron Bank and the F. L. Riley Mercantile Company. He built his house on the main street halfway between the depot and what would eventually be the site of the New Hebron School.

While it was no Macy's or Bloomingdales's, The F. L. Riley Mercantile Co. was the department store of its day, meeting almost every need of the people of the town and the outlying community - food, clothing, farming equipment, school books, household items, medicine, tobacco. Some years ago, when one of the old Riley warehouses was torn down, an accounts ledger was found with entries dated at various times during 1903 and 1904. Some of the entries are as follows, giving you some idea of the variety of goods sold and the prices, not to mention some familiar early New Hebron family names:

W. P. Benson, 1 bridle , $1.50
Will Hutchins, 14 yards calico, $.84
E. M. Riley, 1 U. S. history book, $1.00, 1 grammar school geography book, $1.25, 1 practical arithmetic book, $.70
Emma Berry, 53 bushels of corn, $39.75
J. R. Lane, 1 pr. Pants, $1.75, starch $.05, 1 washpan, $.05
O. M. Armstrong, 1 axe handle $.25
Henry Izard, 1 pr. Ladies shoes, $2.00
Philly Payne, 1 sewing machine, 20.50
L. M. Lane, 1 gun, $5.00
U. S. Berry, 1 well bucket .60, 1 well pulley, .30, 1 bottle turpentine, .10
W. J. Lee, sugar, .50, 1 bottle quinine .15
Baker Sullivan, 12 ½ lbs. bacon, $1.50, 1 plug tobacco, .10
Frank Newsom, 2 horse collars, $3.00
J. J. Berry, a bottle castor oil, .25
D. D. Berry, 21 lbs. cheese @ 15 a pound, $3.15
Fred Garner, 1 barrel of flour, $7.00