Plymouth, Mississippi

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Plymouth, Mississippi
Ghost town
Cemetery at Plymouth Mississippi.jpg
Cemetery at Plymouth
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Plymouth
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Plymouth
Coordinates: 33°31′23″N88°30′06″W / 33.52306°N 88.50167°W / 33.52306; -88.50167
Country United States
State Mississippi
County Lowndes
Elevation
210 ft (60 m)
Time zone UTC-6 (Central (CST))
 • Summer (DST) UTC-5 (CDT)
GNIS feature ID710094 [1]
Plymouth, Mississippi
USA Mississippi location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Usa edcp location map.svg
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Nearest city Columbus, Mississippi
Area210 acres (85 ha)
NRHP reference No. 80002288 [2]
Added to NRHPApril 22, 1980

Plymouth was an early settlement in Mississippi in present-day Lowndes County. Plymouth was located on the west bank of the Tombigbee River at the mouth of Tibbee Creek. [3]

Contents

History

Local tradition holds that Hernando de Soto camped near the site Plymouth and Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville erected a fort here in his campaign against the Chickasaw. [4] The community of Plymouth was formed around 1819, developing around the fortified house of John Pitchlynn, the U.S. interpreter for the Choctaw Agency. Pitchlynn's home was surrounded by a stockade during the Creek War and was known as Fort Smith, in honor of Captain George Smith. Smith served under Colonel John McKee, who used Fort Smith as a base to carry out attacks on the Red Sticks who lived along the Black Warrior River. [5]

Multiple stores and cotton warehouses were built in Plymouth. [4] The low-lying site of the village was prone to repeated flooding. While both Plymouth and its sister town of Columbus across the river had high bluffs, Plymouth's landing site did not have easy access to the bluff heights.

The community was incorporated in 1836 and reached a peak population of 200. [3] After incorporating, street grids were laid off into squares. By the 1840s, the village site was abandoned, as most of the residents had moved across the river to the better site of Columbus. [4]

A post office operated under the name Plymouth from 1833 to 1855. [6]

The Plymouth Academy operated in Plymouth from 1837 to 1866. [7]

Today, the site of Plymouth is just west of John C. Stennis Lock and Dam on the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway. A 210-acre (85 ha) area was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. It includes a village site and a cemetery. [2]

Plymouth Bluff

Plymouth Bluff, just downstream of the village site, is now occupied by the Plymouth Bluff Environmental Center, operated by the Mississippi University for Women. [8] It occupies land owned by the Army Corps of Engineers. The complex serves as the local center for ecological studies, as well as a retreat and conference center. [9]

Multiple fossils have been found in the Bluffs, including a hadrosaur. [10]

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John Pitchlynn served as the official U.S. Interpreter at the Choctaw Agency during the early federal period. Of Scottish-American descent, he had been raised among the Choctaw people. He facilitated relations between the government of the United States and the Choctaw Nation. He was appointed by President George Washington after the United States achieved independence, and served through the administration of Andrew Jackson.

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References

  1. ↑ U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Plymouth (historical)
  2. 1 2 "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
  3. 1 2 "Plymouth". Historical Marker Database. Retrieved April 12, 2023.
  4. 1 2 3 Rowland, Dunbar (1907). Mississippi: Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions, and Persons, Arranged in Cyclopedic Form (PDF). Vol. 2. Southern Historical Publishing Association. p. 438.
  5. ↑ Bunn, Mike; Williams, Clay (2010). Battle for the Southern Frontier: The Creek War and the War of 1812. Mount Pleasant, South Carolina: Arcadia Publishing. p. 56. ISBN   9781625843814.
  6. ↑ "Lowndes County". Jim Forte Postal History. Retrieved April 12, 2023.
  7. ↑ "Plymouth Academy School Records, 1837-1866". Mississippi Digital Library. Retrieved April 12, 2023.
  8. ↑ U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Plymouth Bluff (historical)
  9. ↑ "Plymouth Bluff Environmental Center". Mississippi University for Women. Retrieved April 12, 2023.
  10. ↑ Ward, Rufus (March 13, 2021). "Ask Rufus: The Lost World of Plymouth Bluff". The Dispatch.
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