St. John's Church, Washington County, MS

A portion of the old Greenfield Cemetery is situated amid the ruins of St. John's Church, near Greenville, Mississippi in Washington County. The ruins pictured here, according to some sources, are among the most photographed of any in the State of Mississippi. The church was burned during the Civil War, and according to stories written about the church, lead from the beautiful windows was melted down into "mini-balls."

Mississippi Sunset

Lovely sunsets can be found throughout our country and all over the world, but this Mississippi sunset over the Ross Barnett Reservoir near Ridgeland, Mississippi, is one of my favorites. This vast reservoir, a source of water and a recreational facility for residents of central Mississippi, is home to a variety of wildlife and waterfowl. Beautiful homes overlook the lake from dozens of waterfront developments, and during the warmer months of the year, local residents and visitors alike take to the water in an array of boats of all shapes and sizes. What better end to a day at the lake than a sunset like this?

Madison County Developments with Historical Names

Left: The Chapel of the Cross, located near Annandale, Madison County, Mississippi


Even with the economy in the shape it is, Madison County, Mississippi, seems to be a place where new construction is still ongoing, and I especially enjoy reading the names of new developments in the towns of Madison and Ridgeland. More often than not, these names are historical in nature, and the naming process seems to be one that local builders and county and city officials alike take seriously and put much thought into. Assigning developments historic-related names has been a consistent process since the county first began its growth, as evidenced by the names of some of the older housing areas. For this discussion, three of those particular developments come to mind, Annandale, Rose's Bluff, and Dinsmoor.

Annandale, of course, is named for the plantation of the same name owned by the Johnstone family, the same family responsible for building the Chapel of the Cross on Highway 463, or Mannsdale Road. Originally built in a pastoral setting about three miles southwest of I-55, with very few services nearby, the development known as Annandale is now one of many well-established neighborhoods of beautiful homes set behind brick walls, where tall, old trees grace lush St. Augustine lawns. The entire development surrounds two well-known Jackson-area golf courses, Whisper Lakes and Annandale Golf Club, the location of at least one PGA golf tournament each year.

A Natchez Trace Parkway scenic marker just north of Ridgeland marks the original location of Rose's Bluff. The place that was once a small, white, and secluded sandy beach on the Pearl River at the bottom of a steep bluff is now barely recognizable to those of us who went there as teenagers for picnics and to swim. What was once a place to escape the vigilant eyes of 1960's parents in nearby Jackson is now the home of an upscale waterfront development of the same name. Rose's Bluff, the development, is adjacent to the Jackson Yacht Club and its marina on the Ross Barnett Reservoir, a 33,000 acre water supply and recreational area developed over 30 years ago by building a dam on the Pearl River near the Madison and Rankin County lines.

The development named Dinsmoor is home to large, elegant homes with a range of stylish facades for even the most discerning homeowner, all set on well-manicured lawns and located near a full range of contemporary shopping options. The name Dinsmoor came from the name of a Choctaw Agent named Silas Dinsmoor who served in the Mississippi Territory from 1807 until the 1820s. A reference to the development's namesake was made in a press release dated December 10, 2008, prepared by the City of Ridgeland, an announcement was made about of historical markers planned for placement on Old Agency Road. In that release, mention is made of a "quarrel" that "took place between Dinsmoor and (Andrew) Jackson on Old Agency Road in front of the Choctaw Agency."

As a native Mississippian, I am proud of the rich cultural history of our great state. And it makes me even prouder that cities like Madison and Ridgeland continue to work so hard to preserve the heritage that all of us hold dear.

The Little Red Schoolhouse

My mother's family has roots that date back to the 1800's in Holmes County, Mississippi, where Lexington is the county seat. And with relatives in Holmes County, as well as in neighboring Attala County, we often traveled there to see relatives during my childhood. It was during one of these trips that I first recall seeing the marker that directs travelers to "The Little Red Schoolhouse," a Mississippi landmark, just off Highway 14 near Richland, Mississippi. The cornerstone for the planned two story brick structure was laid in October of 1847, shortly after Masonic Lodges in Holmes County had raised over $3,000 for its construction. Although the original name for the school was to be the Richland Literary Institute, the name was changed to Eureka Masonic College shortly after its construction. In addition to being one of many privately endowed educational institutions that were built to address inadequate education in Mississippi during the 1800's, "The Little Red Schoolhouse" is also known as the birthplace of The Order of the Eastern Star. The historic building is now owned by the Grand Chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star in Mississippi and is maintained in the honor of Dr. Robert Morris, the school's first headmaster and the author of the Order's ritual.

Reference:

Must See Mississippi, 50 Favorite Places by Mary Carol Miller, Mary Rose Carter, Greg Iles, Published by University of Mississippi Press, 2007

The Dark Corner of Possumneck

Something that makes Mississippi special is that a few of its towns have rather unique, and often even strange-sounding names, such as D'Lo, Egypt, Hot Coffee, Itta Bena, and Yazoo City, and any number of others that I won't list here today. Now this is not to say that each of these towns doesn't have a specific and often even an historical reason for its name. This scenario is actually no different for other cities in the United States, or, for that matter, the rest of the world. But a few Mississippi towns may have names that qualify as "one of a kind."

Take Possumneck, for instance. Now you may not have heard of Possumneck. In fact, not every Mississippian even knows about Possumneck. But I would wager that almost everyone who has lived for any length of time in Attala County knows exactly where Possumneck is located. This community got its name from the shape of the area of wooded bottom land that it covered. And yes, it probably did have a rather substantial marsupial population that roamed its dense woods over a hundred years ago. Maybe it still does.

Apart from its rather strange-sounding name, Possumneck was well-known for another reason. It was in this area of Attala County around the turn of the 20th century that a few of the county's less than "reputable" businesses decided to set up shop. And it was for this reason that Possumneck also became known as "Dark Corner." Because the timber business was thriving in that area of Attala county in the early 1900's, the community known as Possumneck eventually grew large enough to maintain a post office. But when the Great Depression caused sawmills in the area to shut down, the less than reputable businesses that no longer had paying customers also closed their doors or moved on to more profitable locations across the Big Black River. The post office soon closed, and today Possumneck is but an extinct town with only a blurred memory of its somewhat colorful past.

"Who Do You Think You Are?"

No, I am not reminiscing about the pop tune with a similar line or am I trying to be, as my dear mother would say, "smart." It's the name of the new genealogy reality show scheduled to air on April 20th on NBC, back-to-back with Dancing With The Stars, which appears on another network.

The show, a take-off on a successful BBC show, will be produced by Lisa Kudrow, of Friends fame, and her production company, Is or Isn't Entertainment. The family trees of Kudrow, who is said to have Polish ancestry, along with actresses Susan Sarandon and Sarah Jessica Parker, will be the subjects of the first show of the series. Subsequent airings, I understand, will feature the ancestries of other celebrities. Although genealogy research has come into its own and has grown in popularity by leaps and bounds during the past decade or more, this show will almost certainly peak the interest of many new family history researchers. You can read more about the show here.

A Downtown High School

I attended high school in "downtown" Jackson in the 1960s. As far as I know, in those days, Jackson only had a "downtown." In years past, the area around North State Street where a few old houses from the antebellum era still stand, may have been called "uptown." But during the 1960s, when we said "downtown," we meant East Capitol Street. The downtown area began at the Illinois Central Train Station, where "fast" trains left Jackson going north to Memphis and South to New Orleans, and continued for slightly less than a mile uphill to the Old Capitol Building. City buses used the railroad station as a transfer point for shuttling passengers east to the downtown area or west to other businesses and homes.

Downtown Jackson was home to a variety of large department stores such as Montgomery Ward, J. C. Penney, and the local Kennington's Department Store. Five-and-dime stores, like Woolworth, Kress, and H. L. Green were all situated near the center of the street and well within two blocks of each other. Downtown Jackson was also home to several large old hotels, the kind with richly appointed lobbies, where chandeliers lighted the way to ballrooms that hosted wedding receptions and other large gatherings. These hotels all had impressive-sounding names like The Heidelberg, The King Edward, and The Walthall.

Deposit Guaranty Bank's tall building, on the north side of the street, next to H. L. Green, was a landmark in downtown, as was the Standard Life Building with its clock on top, and the ivy-covered St. Andrews Episcopal Church next door. Several jewelry stores, a furniture store, and a few local restaurants, including Primos, the Mayflower Cafe, and the "Pig Stand," a local lunch place and after school hangout, completed the assortment of businesses that lined both sides of the street. In the 1960s, Capitol Street was a thriving urban shopping area, with the exception of a few surburban strip shopping malls, such as Maywood Mart and Westland Plaza.

Downtown Jackson actually had two high schools in the 1960s, St. Peter's Catholic School and Central High School. Murrah and Provine were the other Jackson high schools, but each was located several miles away from downtown and nearer to residential neighborhoods that were home to growing families. St. Peter's and Central were just across the street from Smith Park, a public park in the middle of downtown Jackson that is still one of the few publicly-owned parks in the nation. Since we had limited space and no athletic complex, it was in Smith Park that high school "gym" classes went to play softball and to run. Girls' athletics were much different in the 1960s, at least in our school, and intramural sports were limited to boys only. We were in a beautiful location, one where we could see the New Capitol Building on one side of the park and the grounds of the Governor's Mansion on the other. Woolfolk State Office Building, one of the tallest buildings in downtown, could be seen in the distance.

Central High School also was the home to high school Army ROTC, the only high school program of its kind in Jackson. It was on the large front lawn at Central that some of these ROTC students got their first taste of the military before going on to serve their country in Vietnam. Unfortunately, a few of those same students also lost their lives.

Just outside the high school's band hall was the entrance to the Greyhound Bus Station, a place that became well-known during the sit-ins, marches, and riots that became part of downtown Jackson's history and culture during the 1960s. For obvious reasons, the bus station was off limits to students. Our campus was a closed campus, with no privileges that allowed seniors to leave campus during the day, unless we were going to after school jobs or home. Jackson was going through some turbulent times during those years, and national news networks had cameras set up on every corner. Even the threat of suspension and possible expulsion, however, did not prevent some of my classmates from attempting to get themselves into pictures that could have made the six o'clock news.

But June of that year finally arrived, and almost 300 of the so-called "Baby Boomer" generation graduated. Little did we know how much our lives and the lives of those around us would change over the course of the next fifty years.