USGenWeb MSGenWeb USGW Archives

County Links

Message Board


This Sharkey County page is part of the MSGenWeb Project, which is part of the USGenWeb Project.  If you would like to contribute your information to this page, please let me know. The county lies entirely in the Mississippi bottom and the surface is level. The county is drained by the Sunflower river and by Deer creek, which flow through the entire length from north to south, nearly parallel, and at Rolling fork Deer creek divides, the largest prong making an abrupt turn forming almost a right angle with Deer creek, and flows nearly east for about five miles, emptying into the Sunflower river. This is known as Rolling Fork, and was named by Thomas Y. Chaney on his first visit here in 1826, on account of the swiftness of the current immediately preceding its emptying into the Sunflower.

The act creating Sharkey county was approved March 29,1876, and it was formed from the counties of Issaquena, Washington and Warren. Rolling Fork is the county seat. Lying in the Mississippi Delta, in the western part of the State, Sharkey County was organized March 29, 1876, and was named for Judge William L. Sharkey, provisional governor of the State in 1865. It was originally carved from territory belonging to the counties of Warren, Washington and Issaquena. In 1918, it relinquished a part of its area to the new county of Humphreys, to the northeast. Deer Creek runs entirely through Sharkey County. It embraces a land area of 422 square miles, and is bounded on the north by Washington County, on the east by Humphreys and Yazoo counties, on the south by Issaquena County and on the west by Issaquena and Washington.
 
MSGenWeb State Coordinator: Jeff Kemp
Assistant State Coordinators: Position Vacant

County Coordinator Gene Phillips

©2020 by MSGenWeb All rights reserved. This information may be used by libraries and genealogical societies, however, commercial use of this information is strictly prohibited without prior permission of the owner. If copied, this copyright notice must appear with the information.
 

This page was last updated on Thursday, 14 March 2018.