Old Town, Mississippi | |
---|---|
Country | United States |
State | Mississippi |
County | Calhoun |
Elevation | 266 ft (81 m) |
Time zone | UTC-6 (Central (CST)) |
• Summer (DST) | UTC-5 (CDT) |
GNIS feature ID | 683376 |
Old Town-originally 'Hartford is in Calhoun County, Mississippi, United States.
Old Town is located along the Skuna River, and was the first county seat of Calhoun County. [1]
Chocchuma and Chickasaw Indians first occupied the territory and had a village at Old Town. After the Indian removals in the 1830s, white settlers arrived and the village grew.
A letter from Chickasaw County legislator J.A. Orr described the "aspiring little city" as the "head of navigation on the Loosa Scoona river from which many keel boat bore hundreds of bales of cotton to New Orleans." [2]
Some of the first settlers were the Enochs, Murphrees, Swoffords, Reagans, and Maxeys.
The Enochs owned a boat company, and keel boats and flat boats carried cotton from Old Town down the Skuna River to Greenwood and as far as New Orleans. There was a post office, a store, and a pottery which made plates, bowls, and churns. The first church was at "The Old Burnt Meetin’ House Place"; it burned down in 1845. Old Town also had a camp ground and a Methodist church.
Calhoun County was organized in 1852, and the first courts and meetings of the Board were held at Old Town. That same year, the first meeting of the Board of Supervisors was held in the Methodist Church, and it was decided to move the county seat to Pittsboro. [3] [4]
The Old Town Church and Old Town Cemetery remain; there are homes and farms along nearby roads.
A post office operated under the name Hartford from 1852 to 1854 and under the name Oldtown from 1896 to 1912. [5]
Tipton County is a county located on the western end of the U.S. state of Tennessee, in the Mississippi Delta region. As of the 2020 census, the population was 60,970. Its county seat is Covington. Tipton County, founded in 1823, is part of the Memphis, TN-MS-AR Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Yalobusha County is a county located in the U.S. state of Mississippi. As of the 2020 census, the population was 12,481. It has two county seats, Water Valley and Coffeeville.
Webster County is a county located in center of the U.S. state of Mississippi, bordered on the south by the Big Black River. As of the 2020 census, the population was 9,926.
Panola County is a county located in the U.S. state of Mississippi. As of the 2020 census, the population was 33,208. Its county seats are Sardis and Batesville. The county is located just east of the Mississippi Delta in the northern part of the state. It is bisected by the Tallahatchie River flowing to the southwest; travel difficulties because of the river resulted in two county seats being established.
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Copiah County is a county located in the U.S. state of Mississippi. As of the 2020 census, the population was 28,368. The county seat is Hazlehurst.
Chickasaw County is a county located in the U.S. state of Mississippi. As of the 2020 census, the population was 17,106. Its county seats are Houston and Okolona. The county is named for the Chickasaw people, who lived in this area for hundreds of years. Most were forcibly removed to Indian Territory in the 1830s, but some remained and became citizens of the state and the United States.
Calhoun County is a county located in the U.S. state of Mississippi. As of the 2020 census, the population was 13,266. Its county seat is Pittsboro. The county is named after John C. Calhoun, the U.S. Vice President and U.S. Senator from South Carolina.
Bruce is a town situated along the Skuna River in Calhoun County, Mississippi, United States. As of the 2020 census, it had a population of 1,707.
Itta Bena is a city in Leflore County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 2,049 at the 2010 census. The town's name is derived from the Choctaw phrase iti bina, meaning "forest camp". Itta Bena is part of the Greenwood, Mississippi micropolitan area. It developed as a trading center of an area of cotton plantations.
Cotton Gin Port is a ghost town in Monroe County, Mississippi, United States.
The Yalobusha River is a river, 165 miles (266 km) long, in north-central Mississippi in the United States. It is a principal tributary of the Yazoo River, via which it is part of the watershed of the Mississippi River.
A keelboat is a riverine cargo-capable working boat, or a small- to mid-sized recreational sailing yacht. The boats in the first category have shallow structural keels, and are nearly flat-bottomed and often used leeboards if forced in open water, while modern recreational keelboats have prominent fixed fin keels, and considerable draft. The two terms may draw from cognate words with different final meaning.
The Skuna River is a tributary of the Yalobusha River, about 75 mi (120 km) long, in north-central Mississippi in the United States. Via the Yalobusha and Yazoo Rivers, it is part of the watershed of the Mississippi River.
Levi Colbert was an early 19th-century Chickasaw leader and the namesake of Itawamba County, Mississippi.
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Randolph is a rural unincorporated community in Tipton County, Tennessee, United States, located on the banks of the Mississippi River. Randolph was founded in the 1820s and in 1827, the Randolph post office was established. In the 1830s, the town became an early center of river commerce in West Tennessee. Randolph shipped more cotton annually than Memphis until 1840. In 1834, the first pastor of the Methodist congregation was appointed. The fortunes of the community began to decline in the late 1840s due to failed railroad development, an unfavorable mail route and other factors. The first Confederate States Army fort in Tennessee was built at Randolph early in the Civil War in 1861, a second fortification at Randolph was constructed later that same year. During the Civil War, the town was burned down twice by Union Army forces.
Randolph is an unincorporated rural community in Tipton County, Tennessee, United States, located on the banks of the Mississippi River. The lands of the Mississippi River Basin were inhabited by Paleo-Indians and later Native American tribes of the Mississippian culture for thousands of years. The Tipton phase people and the Chickasaw Indian tribe populated the Mississippi River valley near Randolph during the Mississippian period. In 1541, Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto crossed the Mississippi River at or near Randolph. French explorer Cavelier de La Salle built the first French fortification at or near Randolph on his 1682 canoe expedition of the Mississippi River.
Union Church is an unincorporated community located in Jefferson County, Mississippi, United States.
Prentiss is a ghost town in Bolivar County, Mississippi, United States.