Copiah County, Mississippi

Copiah County, Mississippi
Location in the U.S. state of Mississippi
Mississippi's location in the U.S.
Founded	1823
Seat	Hazlehurst
Largest city	Hazlehurst
Area
• Total	779 sq mi (2,018 km2)
• Land	777 sq mi (2,012 km2)
• Water	2.2 sq mi (6 km2), 0.36\%
Population
• (2010)	29,449
• Density	38/sq mi (15/km²)
Congressional district	2nd
Time zone	Central: UTC-6/-5
Website	www.copiahcounty.org

Copiah County is a county located in the U.S. state of Mississippi. As of the 2010 census, the population was 29,449. The county seat is Hazlehurst.

With an eastern border formed by the Pearl River, Copiah County is part of the Jackson, MS Metropolitan Statistical Area.

History

Copiah, from a Choctaw Indian word meaning calling panther, was organized in 1823 as Mississippi's 18th county. In the year of county organization, Walter Leake served as governor and James Monroe as President of the United States. In 2004 Calling Panther Lake, commemorating this name, was opened up just West and North of Crystal Springs near the Jack and New Zion community.

Soon after the Choctaw Indians relinquished their claims to this land in 1819 and the legislature formed Copiah County in 1823, Elisha Lott, a Methodist minister who had worked among the Indians, brought his family from Hancock County to a location near the present site of Crystal Springs. When the New Orleans, Jackson and Great Northern Railroad built in the area in 1858, a new town was created about a mile and a half west of the old settlement. The new settlement took the name Crystal Springs and the old settlement became Old Crystal Springs.

William J. Willing's home was the first to be built in the new town, and Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy, once made a speech from the front yard. Ozious Osborne owned the first merchandise store on a corner of his residence lot on south Jackson Street. This lot later became the Merchants Grocery Company's site.

The development of cotton agriculture in the county was based on slave labor, and the population was majority black before the Civil War.

The first church built was the Methodist in 1860 in Hazelhurst. It was followed by the Baptist in 1861, Presbyterian in 1870. Trinity Episcopal was built in 1882, during a growth in the US Episcopal Church. After the American Civil War, most freedmen withdrew from white churches to establish their own independent congregations, setting up state associations of Baptists by the end of the nineteenth century.

The county expanded its production of commercial vegetable crops, known as truck farming, in the 19th and 20th centuries. Crystal Springs developed as one of the largest tomato shipping centers. Its commercial farming started in 1870 when the first shipment of peaches, grown by James Sturgis, was shipped to New Orleans and Chicago markets. Tomatoes were still known as "love apples" when N. Piazza imported seeds from Italy, and with help from S. H. Stackhouse, began scientific cultivation of tomato plants. With the help of German immigrant Augustus Lotterhos, the industry achieved success. In 1878, Lotterhos pooled the products of a number of tomato growers and shipped the first boxcar load to Denver, Colorado.

In the 1960s, Hazlehurst and Crystal Springs were centers of civil rights activism in the southwest part of the state. In addition to working with the Freedom Democratic Party in 1964 on voter registration and education, they organized to make progress after passage of federal civil rights legislation in 1964 and 1965. With the aid of Rudy Shields, they organized armed groups of Deacons for Defense and Justice, to protect protesters working with the NAACP on boycotts of merchants in 1966 and 1967 in order to gain integration of public facilities and implement civil rights legislation. The Deacons for Defense had first been organized in Natchez in 1965 to protect African-American protesters, after considerable earlier violence in the state against protesters.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 779 square miles (2,020 km²), of which 777 square miles (2,010 km²) is land and 2.2 square miles (5.7 km²) (0.3%) is water.

Major highways

• Interstate 55
• U.S. Highway 51
• Mississippi Highway 18
• Mississippi Highway 27
• Mississippi Highway 28
• Mississippi Highway 844

Adjacent counties

• Hinds County (north)
• Simpson County (east)
• Lawrence County (southeast)
• Lincoln County (south)
• Jefferson County (southwest)
• Claiborne County (west)

National protected area

• Homochitto National Forest (part)

Demographics

The mostly rural county has had two periods of marked losses of population during waves of the Great Migration of African Americans out of the rural South: from 1910 to 1920, and from 1940 to 1970. In the first period, most migrants went North, many to St. Louis or Chicago. In the second, they went West, particularly to California where the defense industry had many new jobs and federal policy created opportunities for African Americans in these fields.

Historical population
Census	Pop.		%±
1830	7,001		—
1840	8,954		27.9%
1850	11,794		31.7%
1860	15,398		30.6%
1870	20,608		33.8%
1880	27,552		33.7%
1890	30,233		9.7%
1900	34,395		13.8%
1910	35,914		4.4%
1920	28,672		−20.2%
1930	31,614		10.3%
1940	33,974		7.5%
1950	30,493		−10.2%
1960	27,051		−11.3%
1970	24,749		−8.5%
1980	26,503		7.1%
1990	27,592		4.1%
2000	28,757		4.2%
2010	29,449		2.4%
Est. 2014	28,797		−2.2%
U.S. Decennial Census 1790-1960 1900-1990 1990-2000 2010-2013

As of the 2010 United States Census, there were 29,449 people residing in the county. 50.9% were Black or African American, 46.3% White, 0.3% Asian, 0.2% Native American, 1.6% of some other race and 0.8% of two or more races. 2.6% were Hispanic or Latino (of any race).

As of the census of 2000, there were 28,757 people, 10,142 households, and 7,494 families residing in the county. The population density was 37 people per square mile (14/km²). There were 11,101 housing units at an average density of 14 per square mile (6/km²). The racial makeup of the county was 47.80% White, 50.95% Black or African American, 0.07% Native American, 0.16% Asian, 0.01% Pacific Islander, 0.46% from other races, and 0.54% from two or more races. 1.15% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.

There were 10,142 households out of which 34.40% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 48.70% were married couples living together, 20.10% had a female householder with no husband present, and 26.10% were non-families. 23.60% of all households were made up of individuals and 10.30% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.71 and the average family size was 3.20.

In the county the population was spread out with 26.90% under the age of 18, 12.50% from 18 to 24, 26.80% from 25 to 44, 21.10% from 45 to 64, and 12.70% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 34 years. For every 100 females there were 92.90 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 89.10 males.

The median income for a household in the county was $26,358, and the median income for a family was $31,079. Males had a median income of $28,763 versus $20,104 for females. The per capita income for the county was $12,408. About 22.00% of families and 25.10% of the population were below the poverty line, including 33.20% of those under age 18 and 21.20% of those age 65 or over.

Tomato Festival

The county is known as a tomato and cabbage producing area, and for many years was called the "Tomato Capital of the World." Specifically, Crystal Springs was known as "The Tomato Capital of the World" because for a few years in the late 1930s it canned and shipped out via rail car more tomatoes than any other locale. Its predominance was disrupted by the onset of World War II but it kept the title.

In June 2000, the town revived celebration of an annual Tomato Festival, held on the last Saturday in June. It includes a tomato growing contest (with prizes for largest tomato, ugliest tomato, prettiest tomato, etc.), tomato tasting, farmers' market, vendor's booths, musical entertainment, 5K run and, of course, the crowning of the new Tomato Queen. The Tomato Festival was originally set up on Front Street.

The Friday night before the Tomato Festival, a Street Dance is held as the kick-off event. It is the night of the crowning of the Tomato Queen. Entertainment includes a live band, games and amusement rides for the kids, and food vendors. During the Street Dance, "BBQ and Blue Jeans" is sponsored by the Junior Auxiliary of Crystal Springs. They sell take-out containers filled with BBQ sandwiches, potato salad, baked beans and a dinner roll. This is the evening when other festival vendors start setting up their booths for the main day events. Vendors come from all over the U.S. to the festival every year to sell their wares, and provide games and amusement rides. A tomato museum at the Chautauqua Park Visitor's Center exhibits historical pictures, agricultural relics from the era, and examples of some of the shipping and canning labels.

Communities

Cities

• Crystal Springs
• Hazlehurst (county seat)

Towns

• Georgetown
• Wesson

Village

• Beauregard

Unincorporated communities

• Carpenter
• Conn
• Dentville
• Gallman
• Glancy
• Hopewell
• Martinsville
• Midway
• Ruby

Ghost town

• Coars Springs

See also

• National Register of Historic Places listings in Copiah County, Mississippi

External links

• Copiah County Courthouse Pictures