Tallahatchie County, Mississippi

Tallahatchie County is a located in the  region of the  of. As of, the population is 14,903. Its s are and.

History
The county was founded on,. Tallahatchie is a name meaning "rock of waters".  The county is one of ten in Mississippi with two county seats,  and. Charleston was the first county seat, and Sumner was organized later in.

Charleston was founded in, but its history goes back prior to that. A settlement of five communities had grown up along the forks of.

In the land was opened for settlement. There were no roads only Indian trails. Most of the settlers entered the county over what was called, an Indian trail that came across from the and entered the hills about where  is now located. Here the trail merged with a trail from the south and passed near the present site of Charleston.

Colonel Thomas Bailey came from and formed the first settlement on the north fork of the creek which was about five miles to the northeast. He was later joined by James Bailey, Samuel Caruthers, William Flemming, M. Johnson, Willam Kendrick, Robert Thrasher, A. Patterson, and who extended the settlement along the creek toward the Junction. Another settlement was started by the Priddy's, the J. Houstons, Cade Alford and the Carson family who extended the settlement along the creek to the junction of three forks.

and were founded on the north fork of the creek just west of the present town. Both towns wanted to be county seat of Tallahatchie, and Tillatoba succeeded. In the Board of Police found it necessary to abandon Tillatobia. There was a section of unsettled land in the heart of the first five settlements. This section of land had been granted to under the terms of the  Treaty of 1830. J.S.Topp & Co. had acquired this section of land and proposed to build the town of Charleston (named for ) and to have this as the permanent county seat. In the county seat fight flared up again. The board voted to abandon Charleston, but Mr. Steel the president of the Board of Police refused to sign the minutes which killed the rally.

moved to this section in and founded what is now Sumner. The present site was a dense forest. He donated land for the railroad right-of-way, railroad park, courthouse square and jail lot. The next year Maria Church, a Presbyterian church, was erected. A post office was established in and the town incorporated in.

From through  disastrous floods and overflows of the river forced the people of Sumner to go by boat to  (which was at the time called Hood) for their supplies. From through  there was overflows which inundated thousands of acres of farmland and destroyed much property.

The first court house was built in and destroyed by fire in. The records were saved, but in the entire business section of the town burned and all records were destroyed.

Tallahatchie County is also known as the location of the murder of in 1955.

Geography
According to the, the county has a total area of 1,689 (652 ). 1,668 km² (644 sq mi) of it is land and 21 km² (8 sq mi) of it (1.25%) is water.

Major Highways

 * [[Image:US 49.svg|20px]]
 * [[Image:Circle sign 3.svg|20px]]
 * [[Image:Circle sign 8.svg|20px]]
 * [[Image:Circle sign 32.svg|20px]]
 * [[Image:Circle sign 35.svg|20px]]

Adjacent Counties

 * (north)
 * (northeast)
 * (east)
 * (southeast)
 * (south)
 * (southwest)
 * (northwest)

Demographics
As of the of 2000, there were 14,903 people, 5,263 households, and 3,826 families residing in the county. The was 9/km² (23/sq mi). There were 5,711 housing units at an average density of 3/km² (9/sq mi). The racial makeup of the county was 39.62%, 59.43% or , 0.09% , 0.36% , 0.05% from , and 0.46% from two or more races. 0.92% of the population were or  of any race.

There were 5,263 households out of which 34.00% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 43.50% were living together, 23.50% had a female householder with no husband present, and 27.30% were non-families. 24.60% of all households were made up of individuals and 11.60% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.81 and the average family size was 3.36.

In the county the population was spread out with 30.00% under the age of 18, 10.00% from 18 to 24, 25.90% from 25 to 44, 20.90% from 45 to 64, and 13.20% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 33 years. For every 100 females there were 87.80 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 84.40 males.

The median income for a household in the county was $22,229, and the median income for a family was $26,509. Males had a median income of $24,766 versus $18,972 for females. The for the county was $10,749. About 26.80% of families and 32.20% of the population were below the, including 43.80% of those under age 18 and 27.80% of those age 65 or over.

Tallahatchie County has the per capita income in Mississippi and the  in the United States.

Communities

 * Cities


 * Towns


 * Villages


 * Unincorporated places

Education

 * Public School Districts
 * (Charleston)
 * (Webb)


 * Private Schools
 * (Charleston)