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The counties of Mississippi have repeatedly figured in the course of the narrative part of this history, as well as in the various topical chapters. But the story of their development as a whole, and the details pertaining to the separate organizations of today, have not been set forth as a complete outline. As there is a constant demand for some ready information as to locality and formation, a short, succinct history of each county is included with this history of the State. An entire volume would be required to properly present the history of Mississippi counties. Limited space prevents more extended treatment. Extensive county histories are being prepared by the State Department of Archives and History as a future contribution to State history.
HISTORICAL DIVISION: The counties of Mississippi now number eighty-two and may be grouped according to the historical order of their formation from the Natchez District, the early Choctaw Indian cessions, the District of Mobile, and the later cessions from the Choctaws and Chickasaws.
COUNTIES OF THE OLD NATCHEZ DISTRICT: The Natchez District, containing the principal white population of the new Territory of Mississippi, was first divided into the counties of Adams and Pickering, April 2, 1799, and the dividing line was nearly the same as the present boundary between Adams and Jefferson. From the area contained in the Natchez District were subsequently erected the counties of Wilkinson, Claiborne, Amite, Franklin and Warren, named in the order of their creation, being seven counties in all.
COUNTIES OF FIRST CHOCTAW CESSION: By the Treaty of Mount Dexter, concluded November 16, 1805, the Choctaws ceded to the United States an extensive area in the southern portion of the Territory, between the Amite and Tombigbee rivers, comprising 5,987,000 acres, and lying north of the thirty-first parallel of latitude. From this area, roughly speaking, were formed by the year 1826, beginning with the county of Wayne, which was established December 21, 1809, the counties of Wayne, Greene, Marion, Lawrence, Pike, Covington, Perry and Jones, and the new counties of Lincoln, Lamar, and Forrest, established 1870, 1904, and 1906, or a total of eleven counties.
DISTRICT OF MOBILE COUNTIES: The Gulf portion of the State, comprising the counties of Hancock, Harrison, Pearl River, Jackson and George, was formerly embraced in the District of Mobile, and was not annexed to the Territory of Mississippi until May 14, 1812, when the legislature promptly organized the new acquisition into the counties of Hancock and Jackson, May 14, 1812. These counties were divided in 1841 to form Harrison, and in 1890 Hancock was again divided to form Pearl River County, and Harrison to form George. While these counties are younger, in point of establishment, than those of the Natchez District, they were settled by the whites at an even earlier date. George and Stone counties were from this same section.
COUNTY DIVISION OF FIRST CHICKASAW CESSION: September 20, 1816, the Chickasaw Indians ceded to the United States, by the Treaty of Chickasaw Council House, 408,000 acres, lying upon the eastern tributaries of the upper Tombigbee River. This area was erected into the large county of Monroe, February 9, 1821, and nine years later, January 30, 1830, the southern part was taken to form the county of Lowndes. After the Choctaw cession of 1830 and the Chickasaw cession of 1832, the limits of these two counties were considerably extended, so as to include a part of those cessions west of the Tombigbee.
THE NEW PURCHASE ERECTED INTO COUNTIES: By the Treaty of Doak’s Stand, October 20, 1820, the Choctaws ceded to the United States an extensive scope of country, long known as "The New Purchase," north of the Mount Dexter treaty line, and bounded on the north by the present northern boundary line of Holmes County, and a line running northwesterly, from the Yazoo River, on the western boundary of Holmes County, to a point one mile below the mouth of the Arkansas River, on the Mississippi; and on the east by a line running a little west of north, from the eastern boundary of Simpson County, to the northern boundary of Holmes County. In this cession was included a total of 5,447,267 acres. All this area was first erected into the county of Hinds, February 12, 1821. Later it was subdivided to form the counties of Yazoo and Copiah in 1823, Simpson (1824), Washington (1827), Madison and Rankin (1828), Holmes (1833), Issaquena (1844), and Sharkey (1876). Humphries, the youngest county in Mississippi, was formed in 1918, from parts of Holmes, Sharkey, Sunflower, Washington and Yazoo, and is therefore a product of the Choctaw lands.
COUNTIES FORMED FROM REMAINING CHOCTAW LANDS: The remaining lands of the Choctaws in the middle portion of the State were finally ceded by the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek, concluded September 27, 1830. This large area of land was erected into eighteen large counties by the act of December 23, 1833, to wit: Noxubee, Kemper, Lauderdale, Clarke, Oktibbeha, Winston, Choctaw, Tallahatchie, Yalobusha, Carroll, Jasper, Neshoba, Smith, Scott, Leake, Attala, Bolivar and Coahoma counties were not erected until the organization of the last Chickasaw cession into counties, in 1836, though most of their area lies within this Choctaw territorial group. Newton was also established in 1836, from the lower half of Neshoba county. No new counties were formed from this area until 1844, when Sunflower County was established, and finally, during the years 1870-1877, the counties of Grenada, Webster, Leflore and Quitman were created.
REMAINDER OF CHICKASAW LANDS FORMED INTO COUNTIES: The Treaty of Pontotoc, October 20, 1832, finally extinguished the title of the Chickasaws to all their lands east of the Mississippi. This immense territory, comprising the entire northern portion of the State, was divided into twelve counties February 9, 1836, when the following counties were formed: Tishomingo, Itawamba, Tippah, Pontotoc, Chickasaw, Marshall, Lafayette, De Soto, Panola, Tunica, Coahoma and Bolivar, though the last two should be properly grouped with the Choctaw cession of 1830. Calhoun County was formed in 1852, and it was not until 1866, when Lee County was created, that this area was further subdivided into counties. Benton, Union, Alcorn and Prentiss counties were established in 1870, Clay in 1871, and Tate in 1873.
It thus appears that all the territory of Mississippi was not organized into counties until the year 1836, when the last Indian cession was divided by the legislature. It will be noted also, that the earliest county organization obtained along the Mississippi River in the southwestern part of the State, and that the northern section of the State was the last to be settled and organized into counties.
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