Holmes
County is located in the west central part of Mississippi. It
was created February 19, 1833 out of the land originally ceded
by the Choctaw Indians in the Treaty of Doak's Stand, October
18, 1820 and known as the "New Purchase." Out of the
original large county of Hinds was formed Yazoo County, and
Holmes was formed from Yazoo in 1833. A portion of western
Holmes County was contributed to the formation of Humphreys
County in 1918. Holmes County was named for Governor David
Holmes, fourth Territorial governor, first Mississippi state
governor, and later U.S. Senator.
Some
of the names of very early settlers of Holmes County are
Nathaniel Rives, Archibald Paxton, W.T. Land, Dr. Garret Keirn,
Robert Cook, James R. Enloe, James Dyer, John W. Dyer, John W.
Anderson, Israel W. Pickens, W.W. George, Dr. Frances R.
Cheatham, Dr. Ira S. Mitchell, Joseph Plummer, Alexander
Magee, Vincent Carraway, William H. Hines, John W. Cowen and
William McLellan. (1)
Between
1820 and 1830, nearly 30,000 people moved into the lands
opened up by the Doak's Stand Cession. The population of
Mississippi increased 175 percent during that decade. Between
1833 and 1837, prices "rose like smoke," and
Mississippi land offices sold over seven million acres of land
on a seemingly limitless supply of credit. Towns sprang up
overnight, and the charlatans, gamblers and speculators
swarmed into Mississippi, ready to make their fortunes. The
land boom created an atmosphere much like California would
experience in 1849. The bubble burst in 1837, when Andrew
Jackson ordered federal land offices to accept nothing but
hard cash for land, and land prices plummeted. There was a
mass movement westward, often to Texas, as speculators went
broke and moved on to a new start. (2)
Not
all immigrants were speculators or charlatans, however. Great
numbers of small farmers moved into these lands from the
soil-weary seaboard states, attracted to the virgin soil.
Census schedules often reflect the migration patterns of these
families, as often the birthplace of the parents was Virginia,
North Carolina or South Carolina, that of their older children
Tennessee or Alabama and the younger children and
grandchildren, Mississippi. Very few settlers in these
counties were foreign-born. (3)
Holmes
County attracted many of these immigrants, drawn to its rich
soil. All crops grew well, but the area was especially
suitable for farming grain and fruit. Timber was abundant, and
there were numerous rivers and lakes. The Yazoo &
Mississippi Valley Railroad connected Durant and Tchula with
the county seat, Lexington, and this farming region shipped
large quantities of produce to northern markets through the
connection in Durant with the Illinois Central Railroad.
Four
of the oldest settlements in Holmes County are now extinct:
Rankin, Montgomery, Vernon and Georgeville. Rankin was located
about five miles from Tchula. Montgomery was on the west bank
of Big Black River at Pickens Ferry. Vernon was about 12 miles
north of Lexington, and was once a thriving town. (1)
Sources:
(1) Rowland, Dunbar. History of Mississippi,
the Heart of the South, published 1925.
(2) Skates, John Ray. Mississippi, A
Bicentennial History, W.W. Norton & Co.,
New
York, 1979.
(3) Weaver, Herbert. Mississippi Farmers, 1850
- 1860, The Vanderbilt Press, 1945.
Copyright 1998 Cindy Greene
