WPA History of LamarCounty,
Mississippi
FORMATION
The Demarcation
Line, an old landmark of Lamar County, surveyed by engineers,
representing the United States Government and Spain in 1798,
along the 31st parallel of north latitude, marked the boundary of
the territory ceded by Spain to the United States, Spain
retaining all the territory south of this line, and the United
States taking that part north, which the state of Georgia had
asserted its claims for. Most of that part of the territory now
called Lamar County lies north of the Demarcation Line.
A portion of the territory belonging to Georgia was set
aside as the Mississippi Territory and Winthrop Sargeant was
appointed governor. Under his governorship three counties were
established - first, Adams and Pickering, April 2, 1799 and then
Washington, June 4, 1800. From these, other counties have been
formed.
Wilkinson was created from a part of Adams, January 30,
1802, Amite, from Wilkinson, February 24, 1809, and Wayne from
Washington, December 21, 1809, at the same time another part of
Adams was made into Franklin. From these three- Wayne, Franklin,
and Amite- Greene and Marion were created December 9, 1811.
Marion County was divided into two judicial districts by an act
of the legislature, approved March 6, 1888. On February 19, 1904,
Lamar was created from the Second Judicial District- the eastern
half of Marion- including a small part of northern Pearl River
County that had originally been a part of Hancock County, and
which was a small section of the territory below the Demarcation
Line that was obtained by the treaty of Ghent at the close of the
war with England in which Spain was involved, 1812-1815.
ORGANIZATION The county,
which was named for the illustrious L. Q. C. Lamar, was
instituted and began to function April 1, 1904, following the
proclamation of governor James K. Vardaman on March 30, at which
time the governor appointed officers for the new county as
follows: G. W. Holliman, sheriff and tax collector; C. V.
Hathorne, clerk of the chancery court and circuit court; T. W.
Davis, superintendent of education; J. T. Carley, county
treasurer; J. W. Holliman, coroner and ranger; E. McD. Nichols,
surveyor; and J. W. Treen (president), D. C. Camp, Willie Powell,
T. I. Cameron, and P. M. Bynum, board of supervisors. J. R.
Cowart, A. S. Hinton and E. C. Thompson were appointed election
comissioners by the State Board of Election Comissioners, and the
county was divided into five districts by these comissioners.
This appointment stood until the election was held the following
May.
SHAPE, SIZE,
and BOUNDARIES
Lamar County is almost a
perfect rectangle, except for the northeast corner and slight
irregularities on the southern boundary. The county contains 498
square miles, or 316,800 acres. The boundaries are as follows: On
the north by Jefferson Davis, Covington, and Forrest Counties; on
the east by Forrest and Pearl River Counties; on the south by
Pearl River County and on the west by Pearl River and Marion
Counties.
COUNTY SEAT
PURVIS, the county seat, with a population of 1000 (1936) is
located seventeen miles south of
Hattiesburg on U. S. Highway 11. In 1883,
where Purvis now stands, there was a huge forest of pine
trees with very few inhabitants, but plenty
of wild game-deer, turkey, and squirrel. No towns existed in this
section until the construction of the New Orleans and
Northeastern Railroad, about the year 1883, when villages began
to spring up. Among these was Purvis, named by railroad officials
after Thomas Melville Purvis, who left Greene County in 1871 and
homesteaded 160 acres of land on which the town is now located.
The legislature of 1888 incorporated Purvis as a
municipality, and the same legislature provided for an election
on the first Monday in May, 1888, to determine whether Lumberton
or Purvis would be the county seat of the Second Judicial
District of Marion County. The election resulted in favor of
Purvis.
John H. Purvis, son of Thomas Melville Purvis, was the
town's first Mayor and W. H. Polk the first marshall.
The first meeting of the Board of Supervisors of Marion
County, Second Judicial District, was held in the courthouse in
this new municipality, June 30, 1890. Those present were: Mr.
Hartfield, J. A. McNease, N. A. Silverstein, H. B. Lewis, and J.
N. Rankin, president of the board; and M. J. Cowart, sheriff, L.
C. Magee, deputy sheriff, A. G. Webb, clerk, and C. C. Mayson,
deputy clerk were also there.
In September, 1892, the position of health officer was
created and Dr. J. J. Dearman was appointed.
In August, 1892, an insurance policy was written on the
frame courthouse for $2000, and in September a contract was
awarded the Manley Manufacturing Company of Dalton, Georgia, to
build a jail for the sum of $2,945. J. T. Carley and W. H. Magee
were appointed as comissioners to examine and inspect the new
jail. In 1893, J. D. Cain was paid $30 for planting thirty shade
trees on the courthouse yard.
Before the creation of Lamar, while this territory was
the Second Judicial District of Marion, the following officers
served at the new county sear during the term mentioned: 1896 -
1900 - B. B. Lewis (president), N. L. Ball, W. T. Morris, J. W.
Rankin, W. M. Hartfield, supervisors, C. C. Mayson, clerk, W. H.
Magee, deputy clerk, and M. C. McLelland, sheriff; 1900 - 1904 -
N. L. Ball, president, J. L. Dobson, W. T. Morris, D. N. Milling,
C. E. Pigatt, supervisors, J. A. Ball, sheriff, G. W. Holliman,
deputy sheriff, and L. C. Wellborn, clerk, and C. V. Hathorne,
deputy clerk; 1904 until the appointment of officers for the new
county of Lamar-- J. B. Dale (president), J. L. Dobson, W. N.
Forbes, J. J. Herring, J. W. Treen, supervisors, I. O. Magee,
sheriff, G. W. Holliman, deputy sheriff, L. C. Wellborn, clerk,
and C. V. Hathorne, deputy clerk
Following the appointment of officers, an election was
held May 1904, and the board of supervisors were elected as
follows; J. W. Treen (president), D. C. Camp, D. D. Stanford,
John Whiddon, Sr., and T. W. Lott. A special meeting of this
board was held in January, 1905, for the purpose of letting a
contract for a new courthouse to be built in Purvis for the sum
of $43,516 to P. H. Weathers, architect, Jackson, Mississippi.
Before the year was over a beautiful two-story courthouse of
brick and stone was completed, and during the same year the mayor
and board of alderman declared the town to be a separate
municipal school district and in 1906 issued to erect a large
two-story brick school building.
On April 24, 1908, the town of Purvis was practically
destroyed by a cyclone. A citizen relates her experience in the
storm and thereby gives a clear idea of the damage it did in the
county seat:
CYCLONE!
After the school building was
rebuilt, the town remained a separate school district until 1931,
when special consolidated school districts were established.
Today one school is especially consolidated and constitutes forty
one percent of the county enrollment; the other is a large school
accommodating all students up to the eighth grade, thus making
educational facilities excellent in Purvis.
In the professional realm there are seven lawyers, two
doctors, and one dentist. The business enterprises which
constitute the present town (1936) are: several home-owned
mercantile stores, two drug stores, three meat markets, two
hotels, three barbershops, and two modern gins that run their
full capacity during the ginning season. There are six public
buildings - four churches and two schools. The town affairs are
now in the hands of the following officers; J. T. Carraway,
Mayor; Forrest Phillips, marshall and tax collector; Miss Betty
Cook, clerk; E. F. Filer, C. E. Wilson, Leon Howard, Burton
Barrett, Robert Slay, alderman; Miss Katie Thomas, treasurer.
Purvis has a lower tax rate than any other town in the county
with no bonded indebtedness and is still in the process of
formation, developing into a prosperous little city. The county
affairs are in charge of the following officers; Cazzie Entrekin,
sheriff and tax collector; S. E. Watts, chancery clerk; Lacy
Lott, circuit clerk; H. C. Broadus, tax assessor; Z. A. Foshee,
superintendent of education; and E. W. Clinton, representative.
EARLY SETTLEMENTS
Before the white settlers came, the Choctaw
Indians roamed through the heavy pine timber that grew in
abundance over the county. There was an ancient Indian settlement
in the extreme northwest end of the county, and there was an
Indian Village about ten miles from Sumrall on Black Creek, where
the Russell Bridge now spans the creek.
About the time the battle of New Orleans was fought and
won by Andrew Jackson a large tide of immigration poured into the
southern section of the present county, principally from the
Carolinas. New people were attracted by low-priced lands that
could be homesteaded, by the mild climate, the luxurious range
for stock, and the cheap living afforded by an abundance of wild
game- such as turkey, ducks, geese, and deer, and the corn that
could be grown there. Sheep and cattle raising was their main
industry. They settled at vantage points, always having an eye
for market facilities.
At this time it was the privilege of any who cleared and
cultivated a piece of the earth proved his rights to ownership by
constant improvement and living on it sufficiently long to make
the title good.
Prominent among those early settlers were the Dearmans,
Landrums, Bounds, Slades, Rouses, Baxters, Stanfords, Hickmans,
Fillingames, Fords, Boones, McCloskeys, all coming the later part
of 1700 or in the early part of 1800.
First to come was Felix Ford and his family from North
Carolina. He was a wealthy stock raiser and brought his stock
with him to the wide ranges and plentiful water supply that South
Mississippi afforded at that time. Then came Hezekiah Slade, who
was also a stock raiser from North Carolina. Following him were
the Stanfords and Baxters from Ireland, who too, were stock
raisers looking for good range. These first settlers went through
many hardships, building their homes of logs, clearing the land,
and seeing after their stock, as at that time wolves and bears
roamed the woods and devoured lambs and calves. The nearest
trading post to that section was Mobile, Alabama, where beef
cattle and wild game were carried once a year on wagons and sold.
Trips were made about once a month for supplies, while lonely
housewives would make the most of the clothing at home, spinning
the thread, then weaving it into cloth by hand on a home-made,
very crude spinning wheel, this taking days and days of toil and
patience to make enough cloth for even one pair of pants. These
folks had courage and labored on and soon gained a livelihood.
They began to think of schools and located their first one near
Baxterville, naming it the Hugh's school.
About fifty years after these people came the northern
part of Lamar County was settled. Among the first pioneers to
settle there were: Lucky Broome, 1860; Watts Lott, Bear Hartin,
Zeb Pace, and Bill Pace in 1865; and Billy King, Rayford Russell,
Dan Sumrall and Acy Carter in 1866. These old settlers are not
known to have been the first to settle the northern part of the
county, but they are the oldest ones known by the present
inhabitants. It is not known where they originally came from, but
most of them moved to Lamar from nearby counties. They all
farmed, and each farm or plantation was equipped in such a way
that only two or three trips a year had to be made to a trading
post. Most of them traded at Pass Christian, Mississippi, a
distance of about ninety miles. The trips wee made in ox-wagons
and required about eleven days in good weather. There were no
trading posts or settlements within the county until about 1870.
The oldest houses remaining that were a part of these early
settlements are only about fifty-five years old.
LUMBERTON, formerly an Indian Village, is the oldest
settlement in Lamar County of which any knowledge is available.
It was settled by a Mr. Proctor, who is said to have been the
first white man to locate in this section. He caught and marked
wild cattle that roamed the forest. Soon after him came Mr.
O'Bannion, then Eli Dearman, who built a log cabin just west of
the present site of the railroad station. The city's present
location - that is, on the 31st parallel of north latitude,
embracing parts of sections one and two, township one south,
range 5 west-, parts of sections 30 and 31, township one north,
range 14; sections 25 and 36, township one north range 15 west-
was embraced within the boundaries of Pearl River County,
established February 22, 1890. The boundaries of Marion county
were later extended south to the 31st parallel, thus embracing
the above sections 30, 31 and 15, and 36, leaving a part of the
town in Pearl River County.
After Lumberton was incorporated as a village in 1895 the
division by the demarcation line occasioned some trouble among
the county's political division. Election day gives an
illustration of their interest in politics. At the Dearman
precinct, six votes were cast, and after the polls were closed
the ballot box was entrusted to a man who rode on horseback to
Columbia, the county seat of Marion, forty miles away- prior to
the formation of Lamar. He was instructed to stay until he could
secure election returns from the entire county, which required
several days. The voters would celebrate the report with a
shooting match, using their ancient flintlocks. There had always
been a rivalry between Lumberton and Poplarville in Pearl River
County, even after a part of Lumberton was embraced by Marion
County. During the fall of 1903, when there was an epidemic of
smallpox, Lumberton's authorities quarantined the town and
employed guards at an expense of $200 or $300 dollars, but later,
when Pearl River County was requested to reimburse the town on
authority of the board of supervisors to pay the bill they
declined to do so. This refusal so disgruntled the Lumberton
people that they asked to be permitted to become a part of the
recently created county of Lamar; thereupon an amended bill was
introduced in the legislature, known as Senate Bill No. 291 and
in this bill the Lumberton territory became part of Lamar County.
However, not until May 5, 1927 was Lumberton located and
organized as a city.
SUMRALL, or the present town site of Sumrall was located
one hundred years ago by Watts Lott, who never entered claim for
the land. He reared a large family, and when he died his sons
settled and cleared the land. His oldest son, Arthur Lott, built
and maintained a water mill and grist mill, which was located on
a road now called Highway 42. He later sold this mill to Daniel
Sumrall, who built a gin. Two years later a post office was
built; this was in 1890. It was named "Sumrall" for Dan Sumrall.
In 1891 the J. J. Newman Lumber Company bought this water
mill and gin and built a large sawmill. The Mississippi Central
Railroad came through about that time and a small depot was
constructed. The work of building a town, railroad and sawmill
occupied the people. The town grew rapidly and soon had a
population of 3000.
Italians and Philippino Negroes were employed to build
the dummy lines or branch lines, of the railroad that ran into
the woods where the timber was cut. Most of the labor was done
with picks and shovels.
The first merchandise was brought in a box car and sold
to the people from the doors of the car, where it was side
tracked on the railroad.
All the excitement of a big lumber camp was once in this
peaceful little town. Wages were high and trains began running on
a regular schedule; the mill began operation, employing two
shifts a day and a night crew. The town grew rapidly and soon had
a population of over 3000. The merchants, doctors and mill
foremen formed the most select social groups of the town and set
the standards of living.
In 1932 when the timber was all cut, the mill closed.
People began drifting away to find employment elsewhere, and the
population decreased to about 1500. Now with its few business
houses, post office, two gins, and several grist mills, this
little town depends entirely upon agriculture. It is located in
the extreme northern part of Lamar County and covers 100 square
miles.
TALOWAH is located six miles north of Lumberton on the
New Orleans and Northern Railroad. It was settled by Jimmie
Bounds,(it later says his first name was Gillum) who came from
North Carolina to this section during the latter part of the
1700s. He settled his first home on the place now owned by Wilmer
Griffen, called the Jimmie Bounds place, located on Black Creek
between Purvis and Brooklyn. He was a farmer and stock raiser-
the crops being corn, sweet potatoes, and rice, and the stock
horses, cattle and sheep. He was noted for hunting wild game and
fishing. When he killed wild deer, he would cure the meat, and
dry the hides and sell them at the nearest trading post, Mobile,
Alabama, making the trip in an ox wagon. About 1860 he moved to
what is now Talowah and settled the place, locating where the
cemetery is now located.
In 1882 the railroad came through and made it a flagstop;
in 1915 a group of Seventh Day Adventists came and still reside
there, having their own school and church.
OKOHOLA is a flagstop six miles north of Purvis on the
New Orleans and Northeastern Railroad, settled by the Boones,
about 1860. It is surrounded by farm homes, with a school as the
center of the community. Near it a historical Indian Mound is
located.
OLOH is a village on the Northwestern part of Lamar
County, settled about 1865 by the Collins family after the War
Between The States. They have a church and school there.
PURVIS, or the present town site of Purvis, though
larger, but not as old as the four previously discussed, was
homesteaded by Thomas Melvin Purvis in 1871. Mr. Purvis' family
consisted on his wife, Abney, two sons, John B. and Oliver S.,
and two daughters, Susan, who married Plummer Ladner, and
Katherine, who married W. Henry Fillingame. He and his family
were, during the early period of settlement, progressive,
substantial and leading citizens of the town and county.
His pioneer home was a two room log cabin, with a large
open fireplace in one room, which was used for cooking as well as
for heating purposes. Later his family ran the first boarding
house for fifty men working on the New Orleans and Northwestern
Railroad.
Long before the railroad was put through he owned a large
portion of that section of the county and sold the land for the
right-of-way to the railroad company. When the town sprang up it
was named for him. In 1884 the railroad was completed and was
known as the New Orleans and Northeastern Railroad, being changed
later to the Southern. It was Mrs. Anna Bufkin's privilege to be
a member of one of the first families to live in the section
house, as her husband was one that helped grade and build this
part of the railroad.
There wasn't enough water to supply the section families
so they got water from a common spring just across the railroad
that had been used by Grandpa Purvis (Melvin Purvis). Other than
the section houses the place was sparsely populated. Right behind
the section houses were two small houses; Andrew Hartfield's
family occupied one, and a Dr. Brial the other. Dr. B. N.
Ainsworth lived out on the place now knows as the county farm.
There wasn't a dwelling house from the section houses to where
John Carley lived. His home was one of the first section houses
built in Purvis after the railroad was put through in 1883. The
lumber for the house was sawed and hauled from his old mill near
Columbia, thirty five miles away.
Houses were built before the timber was cut and cleared
away, and the only wayfares were narrow foot-paths leading from
house to house. As the people began to move in the need of
religious contact was felt so church services were held in the
open with logs for seats.
A church was built in 1884 for the use of all
denominations. It was also used for a school house with A. M.
Carley from Columbia as teacher. In 1885 the Methodists built a
small church and in 1886 the Baptists did likewise.
John Portman's mill, located two miles northeast of
Purvis, was the first in the county. However, about the year 1885
Ed and John Fairley established one in Purvis, locating it in the
hollow below the place where Mr. Carraway now lives and operated
it for several years. After the Fairleys discontinued operating
their mill J. T. Carley established one that eventually James
Hand took over, establishing a larger one in its stead on the
railroad just north of the depot, which he and F. H. Jordan
operated for a long time, helping the city's growth.
PIATONIA is a flag stop, one mile north of Lumberton,
supposed to be named for the Indians. It was settled by John B.
Harris in 1883. In this same year a small depot was built by the
New Orleans and Northeastern Railroad Company, who planned to
build a large town here, but this plan did not materialize
because the Camp and Hinton Brothers located a sawmill in
Lumberton and defeated the hope of a town at Piatonia.
OAK GROVE is a small settlement in Lamar County six miles
west of Purvis. Elijah Ladner settled there in 1884 with a large
herd of sheep and cattle. Later he sold his interest to a Mr.
Mucklewrath, who was followed by other settlers. It is identified
by a school, church and small store.
RICHBURG is a flag station on the New Orleans and
Northeastern Railroad, six miles south of Hattiesburg. It is
named for Charlie Rich, who operated a sawmill here in 1888. He
built a typical little sawmill town with a school, church, etc.,
but after the sawmill closed Richburg shrank back to its former
state.
BAXTERVILLE, a village in the western part of Lamar, was
settled in 1890 by Thomas Baxter, a farmer and cattle raiser,
who, originally from Ireland, emigrated to Virginia in 1648 and
later came to Mississippi. He was soon followed by the Byrds.
These men reared large families and soon built a school. When the
sawmill industry was at its zenith, Baxterville became the center
of one or two mills. After these closed, the town settled back
into a quiet little village, with the descendants of the first
settlers as its only citizens. They have a school, church, post
office and one store.
SENECA is a small flag stop four miles north of Lumberton
on the New Orleans and Northeastern Railroad. In 1910 a band of
German Catholics bought a large tract of land there near what
used to be Slabtown and erected a church and school. This colony,
although handicapped by poor land, has prospered by truck farming
and dairying.
DAVIS was a post office located in Pine Grove Community
years ago, but is now extinct.
PROMINENT PIONEERS
HEZEKIAH SLADE came from North Carolina in the year of
1700, married Helena Victoria Taylor and settled a place on Black
Creek. He was very illiterate but after a while a learned man
came to board with them and taught Mr. Slade and his wife to read
and write. In just a short time Mr. Slade was able to transact
his own business affairs successfully. He and his wife are both
buried in an old out-of-the-way-place known as Choctaw Fork.
"GRANDFATHER" STANFORD came from Ireland in 1820 and
settled a place on Clear Creek four miles west of Baxterville,
that grew and became known as the Clear Creek Community. He
reared a large family that became prominent citizens of Lamar
County.
DANIEL BOONE, originally from Kentucky, came to this part
of the country from Tennessee during slavery time and settled a
place, now belonging to Tatum Lumber Company, called the Boone
Community or Boone Cemetery, located on Black Creek in the
Okahola Community. Mr. Boone reared a large family, the oldest
living descendant being a grandson, Daniel Boone, age 80, who
lives with a daughter at Tatum Camp.
ARTHUR STEWART, grandfather of R. A. Stewart, about one
hundred years ago lived on what was "Stewart's Settlement", the
place now occupied by Tom Cagle in the Pine Grove community. When
he died on a return trip from Columbia, Mississippi, he was
buried on Perkin's Creek, and around his grave a large cemetery,
called Graham Cemetery, has grown.
JOHN LOTT, according to deed records of Lamar County,
entered a tract of land from the U. S. Government in 1840 that is
now owned by Mrs. Frank Burkhalter located in the Rockybranch
Community that was originally known as the Lott settlement. Mr.
Lott is the grandfather of Ira John, and Alvin Lott of
Rockybranch. During the time of his settlement, there was little
land in that section that was not owned by the Federal
Government.
WILLIAM LANDRUM came to Mississippi from the State of
Alabama at the age of nineteen years. Having been reared in a
farm, he settled in a place eight miles east of Lumberton, where
Forest, Lamar, and Pearl River counties now join. He reared a
large family of children, all having long passed away.
JOHN A. MCLEOD, who now lives in Hattiesburg, was among
the first settlers of Purvis. About the time construction of the
railroad began, McLeod came and erected a small log store
building and engaged in general mercantile business, which was
profitable. He soon erected a large brick store building and
organized a corporation, called McLeod and Company, which
operated at Purvis until about 1914; although he had moved to
Hattiesburg, where he also conducted a mercantile business.
CHARLIE SLADE moved to Purvis during the time the
railroad was being constructed, erected a boarding house, and
opened a beer shop.
J. T. CARLEY came to Purvis soon after the railroad was
built and engaged in the mercantile business, and when Lamar
County was established he was elected as the first treasurer and
served until 1918. He took a prominent and leading part in the
developments of the town and community.
W. J. AND J. B. CALHOUN moved to Purvis with their
families about the year 1888, and established a turpentine still
and continued in business there until 1898.
GEORGE NORTHOPE came to Purvis about the time the
railroad was completed and engaged in the Mercantile business.
H. V. WAITS, coming from Georgia in 1904, is a merchant
and a farmer and Sumrall's oldest and best loved living citizen.
His family also is outstanding in the little town of Sumrall, in
Lamar County, and in the state of Mississippi.
HISTORICAL NAMES
CHOCTAW FORK, a fork-shaped level between
two reed-brakes, is located two miles northeast of Lumberton. It
is said by old settlers that a band of Choctaw Indians camped
here, thus giving its name.
LOST JOHN was a flag stop on the Gulf and Ship Island
railroad three miles west of Baxterville, so named for a Negro
named John who became lost here and couldn't be found.
COAL TOWN was a small community located four miles
southwest of Purvis on Purvis and Oloh road. Years ago, older
people say, every family in this community burned charcoal to
sell, that they might buy food for their family, giving the
community the name of "Coaltown".
BURNT BRIDGE COMMUNITY is about ten miles northwest of
Purvis. One night the bridge that spanned Black Creek, a creek
that runs through that territory, burned, and thereafter the
community was known by that name.
SNUFF RIDGE is a small community ten miles west of
Purvis. Years ago there were a lot of frolics given in this
community when almost everyone dipped snuff.
PEA RIDGE is a small community thirteen miles west of
Purvis. Years ago, older people say, a man in this community
planted more peas than any other farmer near him.
BENNETT'S MEMORIAL PARK, located in the town of Purvis,
near the depot, is named for R. L. Bennett, who was cashier of
the Lamar County Bank for a number of years and is now deceased.
MILITARY SCHOOL and MILITARY CHURCH, two miles south of
Sumrall on Jackson's Military Road, get their names from the road
that is named in honor of Andrew Jackson.
YAWN SCHOOL, located five miles north of Lumberton, is
named for Honorable H. G. Yawn, a public spirited man, a leader,
and a statesman, who was instrumental in establishing the school.
UNUSUAL NAMES
DEVIL'S BACKBONE is the name given to the
ragged hills near Baxterville that has the appearance of a
backbone.
HUB HILL, located on the Purvis and Columbia Road, about
three miles west of Baxterville, was named for the village of
Hub.
BLACK CREEK HILL is located on U. S. Highway 11, seven
miles south of Purvis near Black Creek.
SAND HILLS, obviously where sand is thick and soft, is
located in Pine Grove Community. An old lady was hired once, long
ago, to burn some of the sand from these hills to go on the
railroad rails to keep the train from slipping in rainy weather.
RED HILLS, located in the Pine Grove Community, were so
named for their beauty. The dirt on the hill is very dark red.
MOSS LAKE, located three miles west of Purvis, is called
Moss Lake because all the trees around are covered with Moss
LITTLE RIVER, a small stream that flows through the
northwestern part of Lamar County, was named by the early
settlers for its size.
SAWED HORN SPRINGS is located several miles south of
Purvis, named for Sawed Horn Sam Slade, who settled the place and
discovered the Springs. He attained the name, himself, in the
Battle of Shiloh, when he was shot through the nose, giving it
the appearance of a horn that had been sawed from an ox.
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