Rowland's History of Itawamba County, Mississippi

Source:  Rowland, Dunbar, ed.  Mississippi: Comprising Sketches of 
Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions, and Persons, Arranged in 
Cyclopedic Form.  3 vols.  Atlanta:  Southern Historical Publishing 
Association, 1907.

From:  Volume 1, pp. 946-948

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  Itawamba County was erected February 9, 1836, during the administration 
of Governor Charles Lynch, and is said to have been named for an Indian 
chief's daughter.  Four years earlier, in 1832, the Treaty of Pontotoc 
had been concluded with the Chickasaw nation of Indians, whereby they 
finally ceded to the United States all their remaining lands in the 
northern part of the State.  Out of this large and fertile territory, a 
dozen counties had been created by the close of the year 1836, one of 
them being the subject of the present sketch.  Its original limits were 
defined as follows:  "Beginning at the oint where the line between 
townships 6 and 7 intersects the eastern boundary of the State, and 
running with the said boundary line to a point one mile north of its 
intersection with the line between townships 11 and 12; thence due west 
to the line between ranges 5 and 6 east; thence north with the said range 
line, to the line between townships 6 and 7, and thence east with the 
said township line, to the beginning."  October 26, 1866, it contributed 
a large part of its western territory, to assist in forming the new 
county of Lee (q. v.), and a few years later the dividing line between 
Itawamba and the counties of Prentiss and Tishomingo was defined by a 
line running east from the southwest corner of section 14, between 
sections 14 and 23, township 7, to the eastern boundary line of the 
State.  In common with all of this Chickasaw region, Itawamba county had 
been rapidly settled by a strong tide of emigration, not only from the 
older counties of the State, but from the States of Tennessee, Alabama 
and Georgia as well.  The Indians, reluctant at first to abandon their 
"ancient homes and the graves of their ancestors,' by the close of the 
year 1839, had nearly all retired to their new allotments west of the 
Mississippi rier.  The villages of Van Buren, Wheeling, West Fulton and 
Ironwood Bluff were among the earliest places in the county to be settled.  
All four have now disappeared.  Van Buren was located on a high bluff on 
the Tombigbee river.  Winfield Walker, a nephew of Gen. Winfield Scott, 
opened a store there in 1838, and the following year W. C. Thomas & 
Brother also began business there.  Other business men of the place were 
Mr. Dines, from New York; John W. Lindsey, J. C. Ritchie, H. W. Bates, 
Elijah B. Harber, _____ Weaks, E. Moore, and R. F. Shannon.  The building 
of the Mobile & Ohio R. R., caused the place to decay and the old site is 
now in cultivation.  Wheeling was located on the Tombigbee, three miles 
below Van Buren, soon after the Chickasaw land sales.  Jowers & Holcomb, 
and R. P. Snow did business here for a short time.  After two or three 
years its life was absorbed by Van Buren, three miles up the river.  Old 
West Fulton, says Mr. Eli Phillips, of Fulton, Miss., was on the west 
side of the Tombigbee river, 2 1/4 miles from Fulton, and Ironwood Bluff 
was about 10 miles south of West Fulton, on the same side of the river.  
The county is situated in the northeastern part of the State, on the 
Alabama border.  It has a land surface of 526 square miles.  It is 
bounded on the north by the counties of Tishomingo and Prentiss, on the 
east by Alabama, on the south by Monroe county and on the west by Lee 
county.  It is a county without railroads, large towns or important 
manufacturing interests.  Its transportation facilities are confined to 
the Tombigbee river during the winter season and wagon roads.  Its wealth 
lies in the products of its soil and its valuable timber tracts.  The 
county seat is the little town of Fulton, near the center of the county, 
containing 250 people.  The whole county is thickly dotted with small 
settlements, among which may be mentioned Mantachie and Rara Avis.  The 
surface of the county is level, broken or hilly, and undulating; the 
timber consists of oaks, pine, hickory, blackjack, maple, beech, walnut, 
gum and cypress.  It lies partly in the so-called Sandy Lands region and 
partly in the Northeastern Prairie belt, and is watered by streams 
forming the head sources of the Tombigbee.  The soils consist of fertile 
bottoms, prairie limestone and hill soils, some strong and some poor.  
They produce cotton, corn, oats, wheat, sorghum, potatoes and grasses.  
The live stock industry is extensive and the pasturage is good the year 
around.  All varieties of fruits and vegetables are raised for home 
consumption.  A few small grist and saw mills are doing business.

  The twelfth United States census, 1900, gives the following statistics 
for the county:  Number of farms, 2,259; acreage in farms, 272,395; acres 
improved, 80,228; value of lands exclusive of buildings, $691,300; value 
of buildings, $264,530; value of live stock, $451,626, and total value of 
products not fed, $747,445.  The number of manufacturing establishments 
was 27, capital $63,452; wages paid, $10,240; cost of materials, $36,839, 
and total value of products, $63,694.  The total assessed valuation of 
real and personal property in the county in 1905 was $1,072,249 and in 
1906 it was $1,510,149, which shows an increase during the year of 
$437,900.  The population in 1900 consisted of 12,202 whites; 1,342 
colored, a total of 13,544 and an increase of 1,836 over the year 1890.  
In 1906, the population was estimated at 15,000.  Land values are 
increasing.