Scott Co, MS

Description

The history of Scott County, Missippi, as well as the schools, libraries. Biographies of the local residents.

Sujets

• Histoire
• Misisipi
• Local history
• History of the United States
• History
• Mississippi

Informations

• Publié par: Turner Publishing Company
• Date de parution: 16 mars 2002
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781681625355
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

Main Street Forest looking North 1900 .

Main Street Forest

West side of the Courthouse, Forest MS .

TURNER PUBLISHING COMPANY
Turner Publishing Company Staff: Publishing Consultant: Keith R. Steele Designer: Peter Zuniga
Copyright 2002 All rights reserved Publishing Rights: Turner Publishing Company
This book or any part thereof may not be reproduced without the written consent of the publisher and Scott County Genealogical Society
Library of Congress Control No. 2001097758 ISBN:978-1-56311-746-6
Additional copies may be purchased directly from the publisher. Limited Edition.
Table of Contents
Preface
Introduction
Publisher s Message
History
Forest County Seat
Towns and Communities
Schools
Churches
Organizations and Clubs
Businesses
Legends
Homes
Tributes
Family Histories
Index

Cook Motor Company, Forest, MS
Preface

Mary Grace Haralson Schwab, Chairperson Book Committee
The purpose of this history book is to preserve our heritage and the heritage of the many families that have made Scott County their home since it was founded. The county history as well as the histories of the town and communities, businesses, schools, homes and interesting facts and legends was researched by the book committee. Information was obtained from articles in the state archives, citizens and articles at the Forest Public Library.
Every effort has been made to represent all sections of the county. It is not our intention to leave anyone or anything out.
The book committee would like to thank everyone that has submitted his or her family histories and photos. Mr. Marion McCrory was real helpful in letting us use his photo collection. The family histories were sent to the publisher as submitted.
I would personally like to thank Dorothy Vance, Marcia Estep, Shawna Alexander and Delores Sanders for helping in this project. A special thank you goes to Ike Crudup Jr. and Mary Vance for helping with the project in its final weeks and Mr. Sid Salter and employees of the Scott County Times Newspaper for publishing our press releases and making photos for us when we needed them.
I hope future generations will look at this book and be proud to know that their family was from Scott County, MS.
Mary Grace Haralson Schwab
Forest, MS
Introduction

Committee Members L-R: Shawna Alexander, Dorothy Vance, Mary Schwab (Chairperson), Not pictured: Marcia Estep and Delores Sanders
On August 9, 1997 a group of people interested in forming a genealogical society in Scott County came together at Forest Public Library. By-laws and a mission statement were adopted. Scott County Genealogical Society was accepted as the name with membership open to anyone wishing to join. Dues and meeting times were set. Officers were elected with A.D. Boykin as our first president, Steve Watkins as vice-president, Dorothy Vance as secretary/treasurer and Linda Harvey as program chairman. Officers at this time are: Mary Schwab third term as president, Marion McCrory third term as vice-president, Dorothy Vance secretary/treasurer and Shawna Alexander program chairman. Over the last four years membership has steadily grown. We now have 78 members all over the United States. Our quarterly newsletter The Tree Climber is also traded with other societies. In 1999 the society decided to put together a cookbook of family recipes to include photos of ancestors, it took a year but as of now we have had three printings. In 2000 the society put together a Pedigree Chart book that includes over 900 names and is indexed. In 2000 we got permission to name the Genealogical Collection at Forest Public Library in honor of the late Richard S. Lackey; a plaque was presented to the library and Mr. Lackey s daughter, Ellen attended the presentation.
In October 1999 Mary Schwab the president of Scott County Genealogical Society was contacted by a representative of the publishing company. The purpose of the contact was to see if the society would be interested in publishing a book on the history of Scott County and its families. The society discussed the idea and in January 2000 the contract was signed. A book committee was formed with volunteers. It has taken two full years and a lot of work but we feel it will be well worth our efforts.
Scott County History
Abram M. Scott
Abram M. Scott, seventh governor of Mississippi (1832-1833). He was a native of South Carolina, but at an early age went to the Mississippi territory. Mr. Scott became a leading planter of Wilkinson County and was one of its five representatives in the first state constitutional convention of 1817. He served two terms as lieutenant governor, during the first and second administrations of Gerard C. Brandon, and in January 1832 succeeded the latter as chief magistrate of the state. His term was rendered conspicuous by the assembling of the constitutional convention in 1832, which reconstructed the whole organic law of the state. The principle feature of the newly adopted constitution was the increased power given the people through the ballot box in making the election of legislators and state officers, including the judges, by direct vote and by doing away with the property qualifications. Mississippi was thus the first state in the union whose constitution provided for a judiciary elected by the people. Gov. Scott did not live to complete his term of two years, having fallen a victim to Asiatic cholera, which raged throughout the Mississippi Valley in 1832-1833. He died in Jackson, MS June 12, 1833. Scott County was named for this well respected leader of the great state of Mississippi.
Scott County
Scott County was organized from land acquired from the Choctaw Indians September 27, 1830 by the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek. This treaty stipulated that the Choctaw Indians would leave the area of the Choctaw purchase as quickly as they safely could. The number of Choctaws who immigrated to the Choctaw nation west of the Mississippi River was reported by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs of 1838 to have been 15,177. The county, along with 15 others, was organized about three years after this treaty. Scott County was organized December 23, 1833 and was named in honor of Abram Scott, seventh governor of Mississippi.
The act of the legislature creating the county defined its borders as follows: beginning four townships, or 24 miles, north of the Choctaw base line and four townships east of the Choctaw Doak s stand line; thence northward 24 miles, westward 24 miles, southward 24 miles and thence eastward to the starting point. The county was originally square and contained 576 square miles. There was however a strip on the east side of the Doak s Stand boundary line which had not been granted to any county. Four years after its creation Scott County was enlarged by the addition of all that portion of territory east of Pearl River and the old Choctaw boundary line, describing the dividing line between the Indian and white settlements prior to the Dancing Rabbit Treaty of 1830 from the point where the same boundary line crosses Pearl River to the point where the same intersects the western boundary line of the county. This additional territory contained only eight square miles, making a total of 584 square miles, or 373,760 acres in the county. With this exception the boundary lines of Scott County has not been changed since its creation. It is situated in the south central part of the state, about halfway between Jackson and Meridian. The principal streams in the county are Strong and Leaf rivers; Tuscalameta, Tala Bogue, Nutuckala, Schocklala and Coffee Bogue creeks. The bottom and prairie lands produce well and the hill lands by fertilization give remunerative crops. It is now in the Fifth Congressional, the Eighth Circuit Court and the 13th Senatorial Districts. The county is bounded by Newton on the east, Smith on the south, Rankin on the west and Leake on the north with a very small portion touching Madison on the northwest. The commissioners appointed to organize the county were John J. Smith, Gilbert D. Gore, James S. Jolly, Samuel Hawthorn, Morgan McAfee, F. Carr, Joe Bogan, John R. Dunn, D.W. Hopkins Sr., John P. Smith, Robert Laird, James Boykin and James Furlow. The following persons were appointed by said commissioners as members of the first board of supervisors, known as the Board of Police, John Dunn, James Russell, Wade H. Holland, Stephen H. Berry and Jeremiah B. White. The board met on April 7, 1834 and organized by electing John Dunn, president and Stephen Berry, clerk pro tem. The first election held in the county was on the 18th and 19th of April 1834. John Smith was elected sheriff and Nicholas Finely was clerk of the probate court and William Ricks was elected the first probate judge.

Abram M. Scott
By 1840 the white population was 1,184. The following were among the early settlers of the county, to wit: Maj. R.W. Roberts, who is remembered as a prominent and worthy citizen and elected to Congress before the formation of congressional districts; John J. Smith, Landon Butler, Duncan Smith, George D. Keahey, S.J. Denson, Stephen Berry, Jonathan Summers, Alfred Eastland, Abner Lack, Mesback Patrick, Joseph Hunt, William Ricks, J.B. White, J.M. Finley, Cullen C. Coward, Thomas Segreath, Gabe Fields, Thomas Slay, Isaac Carr; the late A.B. Smith, familiarly known as Dick Smith, son of John J. Smith was the first white child born in Scott County; he was regarded by his professional brethren as an excellent criminal and land lawyer; he was the father-in-law of Col. Thomas B. Graham, who was for 14 years chancellor of the 8th Chancery District.
These settlers came into the county by way of the road, which came from Winchester in Wayne County, MS and passed through the southern part of the county and the stage road from Montgomery, AL which passed from Union in Newton County to Hillsboro in Scott County. From Hillsboro the stage followed a route