Mississippi

Cross City was founded in 1854 by surveyors Houston Mitchell and Hamilton Mask where the Mobile & Ohio Railroad intersected with the Memphis & Charleston line, the only such site of its kind in the west at that time. Following the widespread Victorian fad of naming towns after classical locations, in 1855, Cross City was renamed "Corinth" after the famous crossroads of ancient Greece. Located only 10 miles from the Tennessee-Mississippi state line, Corinth has a long and colorful history of strategic importance to the entire country.

Images of America: Mississippi in the Great Depression reveals the politics, the economy, the places, and the people persevering the nation's most trying economic era.

By the time the Great Depression was well underway, Mississippi was still dealing with the lingering effects of the flood of 1927 and the Mississippi Valley drought of 1930. As Pres. Franklin Roosevelt took office in 1933, Mississippi senator Pat Harrison, chair of the Senate Committee on Finance, oversaw the passage of major New Deal legislation, from which Mississippi reaped many benefits. Other Mississippi politicians like Gov. Mike Connor initiated measures to improve the treatment of inmates at Parchman Prison in the Delta and Gov. Hugh White established the Balancing Agriculture with Industry initiative. Women also played an active role. The Natchez Garden Club successfully spurred tourism by starting the state's first pilgrimage in 1932. Mississippians found employment through the Public Works Administration and the Civilian Conservation Corps, which stimulated economic development through new and add-on construction in urban and rural areas and the construction of nine state parks. For black Mississippians, segregation and discrimination in New Deal benefits and jobs continued, but what they did receive from the federal government spurred a determination to fight for equality in the Jim Crow South.

Lifelong Mississippian Richelle Putnam is an award-winning author, a Mississippi Arts Commission teaching artist, and a Mississippi Humanities speaker.

Nestled at the heart of the beautiful Mississippi Gulf Coast, lined with white beaches, shaded by majestic live oak trees, and caressed by gentle sea breezes, Ocean Springs has grown over the last century from a small fishing and agricultural village into a lively arts community. With rich historical roots beginning with the establishment of a French beachhead in 1699, Ocean Springs was incorporated in 1892 with fewer than 600 residents and has grown to a population of 17,442 as of 2010. Ocean Springs is a modern cosmopolitan mix of creative arts, fine dining, light industry, and seashore recreation. A visit to Ocean Springs is a pleasant mix of old and new, with quiet tree-lined streets, busy galleries and museums, restful parks, and treasured memories of the past.

Tippah County received its Chickasaw name as one of the 10 original counties formed from the Chickasaw Session of 1832. Ripley, the county seat, was named in honor of Gen. Eleazar Wheelock Ripley, a Congressional Gold Medal holder and War of 1812 hero. As is typical of many early Southern settlements, Ripley was built in the form of a square with a courthouse as its center. The first railroad was chartered in 1859 but was not completed until after the Civil War in 1871. The railroad was owned by Col. William C. Falkner, the great-grandfather of Nobel Prize winner William Faulkner, who also lived in Ripley as a child. The county averages more than 30,000 visitors per month who visit the 50-acre traders location. The market has never missed a First Monday weekend since it began on July 4, 1893. The county is very proud of its past and excited about its future.

Though best known for the forty-seven-day siege many think sealed the fate of the Confederacy, Vicksburg, Mississippi boasts several claims to fame. Located near the site of the first European settlement in the state, Vicksburg is also the first place in America where Coca-Cola was bottled and home to such historic figures as Jefferson Davis and Madam C.J. Walker. Within these pages, Vicksburg and its environs are explored and celebrated through the eyes of late-nineteenth- and twentieth-century photographers. From downtown street scenes to pastoral rural landscapes, Vicksburg: Town and Country is a compilation of photographs from 1870 to the present day. Coupled with informative captions,
each image is a slice of history and a unique treasure for anyone seeking to understand the past. Born of the river, Vicksburg is a modern, bustling port and the scene of the best-marked battlefield
in the world, the Vicksburg National Military Park. From soldiers to scientists, merchants to educators, a colorful cast of characters has shaped the history of Vicksburg. City dwellers and rural residents alike are a part of this fascinating visual journey.

In 1900, the Mississippi legislature appropriated funds to purchase approximately 4,000 acres of farmland in Sunflower County, the heart of the Delta. The state's aim was to establish the Mississippi State Penitentiary, commonly known as Parchman because of the hamlet where it is located. From its inception, the prison farm was designed to preserve the vestiges of the antebellum South. Legislators believed they had designed the ideal correctional institution because Parchman would turn a profit, preserve the planter culture, and keep the black population enslaved in the Jim Crow era. The 1930s represented a turning point in the life of the prison. During this time, the Depression caused a drop in profits, some political leaders initiated measures to improve the standards of care for the inmates, and the New Deal's Works Progress Administration Writers' Project brought musical historians to Parchman.

Itawamba County takes its name from Chief Itawamba, a prominent leader of the Chickasaw Indians. Formed in 1836 from ceded Chickasaw Indian lands, the county was settled by hardy, industrious pioneers seeking new opportunities in a new land. The legacy of these hardworking settlers continues with the photographic history portrayed in Images of America: Itawamba County. Beautiful and immense hardwood forests that provided shelter for its pioneers later became the source of a logging boom, with sawmills and oxen being a familiar sight. Life in Itawamba County was not all work and no play, however. The county has a rich musical heritage: local musician Jordan Cockrell won first place in the World Championship Fiddling Contest held at the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis; the "First Lady of Country Music," Tammy Wynette, and jazz great Jimmie Lunceford, known as the "King of Syncopation," were both born here; and the roots of the "King of Rock and Roll," Elvis Presley, go deep in Itawamba County.

The United States Naval Construction Force, known as the Seabees, have and are still an integral part of the Naval base located in Gulfport, Mississippi.

In June 1942, the U.S. Navy established an advance base depot in Gulfport because of its uncrowded deepwater port, rail access, open land, and a tepid climate that permitted training and open port facilities year-round. The base became the southern home for the Seabees and was ideal for shipping construction material and men to the Caribbean or the Pacific via the Panama Canal. Since the base reopened in March 1966, Seabees have deployed from Gulfport to serve during major conflicts as well as in peacetime. Seabees from Gulfport played an integral part in Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm and more recently deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq to assist in local construction efforts to rebuild both countries. Seabees assist thousands each year in international humanitarian projects while still calling Gulfport home.

William Carey College is ideally located in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, to serve all of South Mississippi, from Jackson to the Gulf Coast and from the coastal borders of Alabama to Louisiana. Originally named South Mississippi College, the school was established in 1906 as Hattiesburg's first institution of higher learning. After an immense fire destroyed the college in February 1910, local businessman W. S. F. Tatum acquired the property and offered the site to Mississippi Baptists for the establishment of a college for women. Mississippi Woman's College opened its doors in 1911 and continued operation until the trustees voted in favor of coeducational status for the college in 1954. Pres. Irving E. Rouse chose the name William Carey College in honor of an Englishman who became known as the "father of modern missions." Today William Carey College has an enrollment of over 3,000 with branch campuses in New Orleans, Louisiana, and Gulfport, Mississippi. Although many of the archives of the college have been destroyed, it is hoped this book will present the interesting story of William Carey College and its predecessors, faculty, alumni, and students.

In 1940, the town of Clinton had scarcely grown in size or population since the Civil War. However, the coming of World War II forever changed the identity of this small Southern college town. Aside from the sudden departure of its best and brightest men and women for the front lines, global war touched Clinton in the form of a German POW camp and a Navy V12 training school at Mississippi College. Clinton: 1940-1980 picks up where author Chad Chisholm ended his previous book, with Clinton in the midst of postwar growth. It is a chronicle of Clinton's living history, a treasury of photographs for all Clintonians.

Learn the story behind how the town of Oxford, Mississippi, and The University of Mississippi came to be.

Oxford and Lafayette County were formed from the Pontotoc Treaty and the Chickasaw Cession of 1832 and the revised agreement in 1834. This treaty with the Chickasaws ceded land that formed 12 counties in North Mississippi. On June 22, 1836, three land speculators, John Martin, John Chisom, and John Craig, donated 50 acres to the Board of Police for the formation of the city of Oxford. The name Oxford was proposed by a nephew of John Craig, Thomas D. Isom, who worked for him in his trading post, in hopes that the state legislature would place the new state university there. Oxford was chartered by the State of Mississippi on May 11, 1837. The University of Mississippi opened its doors in 1848.

Plagued from its beginnings by fires, financial hardships, and the dismal days of war, Belhaven College in Jackson, Mississippi, has persevered into the twentyfirst century to become a leading liberal arts institution with one of the South's most diverse small college populations. In this delightful journey into the school's storied past, vintage photographs illuminate the beloved campus, early classes, annual events, and prolific leaders that friends and alumni of Belhaven will recall with fond memories. Founded in 1894 by Dr. Louis T. Fitzhugh, Belhaven College for Young Ladies occupied a large residence and spacious grounds formerly belonging to Colonel Jones Hamilton and named after his ancestral home in Scotland. Just seven months after it opened, the college burned to the ground on February 7, 1895. New buildings were constructed, and the college reopened in the fall of 1896. Fires would also wreak havoc on the school in 1910 and 1927; the school would go on to affiliate with the Presbyterian Church in the early part of the century; and the post-Depression years would find Belhaven facing an uphill struggle to continue operating with minimal funds. Shaken but not defeated, Belhaven continued to grow and with each passing decade gained more national recognition, whether through its renowned music program, its high standards of academic excellence, or the introduction of intercollegiate sports following the school's first admittance of male students in 1954. Although the years have brought numerous changes and Belhaven now rests on the cusp of the computer age, the school's commitment to traditional Christian values still permeates every aspect of a student's education.