Aberdeen, Monroe County, Mississippi, 1891
Aberdeen, the seat of justice of Monroe County, and one of the oldest towns
in the northern part of the state, is situated on the west bank of the Tombigbee
River, and has a population of about three thousand four hundred and forty-five.
It is beautifully located and has a good trade, although it is not as extensive
as formerly, as only branch lines are built to Aberdeen. The Mobile & Ohio,
Kansas City, Memphis & Birminghan and the Illinois Central lines all have
branches terminating at Aberdeen. The United States courthouse and post-office
building cost in the neighborhood of $100,000, and is a beautiful and imposing
structure. The town has a cotton campus, an ice factory, a spoke factory and
other manufactures, and two flourishing banks; The First National, organized May
1, 1887, with a capital of 175,000, formerly the private bank of Jinkins Bros.,
and the bank of Aberdeen, organized October 10, 1888, with a capital stock of
$50,000. The city has one of the finest and most complete public school
buildings in the state, and several elegant church buildings.
Aberdeen possesses many advantages as a manufacturing and distributing center,
and will in the course of time develop into an important city. The present
conspicuous advantages of Aberdeen will be greatly improved with the completion
of prospective rail-roads, which, besides giving increased transportation
facilities, will also place it in direct communication with the great coal and
iron districts of Alabama, located within a reasonable distance, and giving
access to the great forests of valuable timber which form one of the most
valuable, while least appreciated, of the resources of the Southern states.
Prof. Lawrence C. Johnson, of the United States Geological survey, recently
expressed himself as follows, concerning Aberdeen and its surroundings:
"At the head of navigation, this is the natural and nearest outlet to a large
territory of both Mississippi and Alabama. It should control the coal and iron
regions of at least Lamar and Marion counties, Ala., and have an equal chance at
the grand coal fields of Walker. With your population and position you already
possess two kinds of capital necessary to enter the lists in the great iron
industries of what we may term the New South. Your position, geologically
considered, is advantageous. Situated at the eastern edge of what the books call
the Eutaw formation of the cretaceous group, you have behind you all the wealth
of the calcareous soils of the prairie. Beyond the Tombigbee you have thin
soils, it is true, in the sharp hills of what we call the Tuscaloosa formation;
but these hills are clothed with the finest timber, and when that is removed it
becomes the land of the mulberry, grape, peach, and all the fruits of our
climate. In this formation let it be understood that you have no gold, no
silver, no lead, nor any coal; do not waste your time upon them; but you have an
abundance of iron ores, carbonates and limonite of various grades. In Lamar
County, from ten to fifteen miles of the Mississippi line, there are many
deposits of limonite ore. The old Hale & Murdock mines are well known. This is
not an accidental, sporadic case of the occurrence of ore, but belongs to a
system belongs to the lower division of the Tuscaloosa formation, which we have
traced from Autauga county, Ala., to Tishomingo county, Miss. It may not be
discovered as a continuous iron belt, because erosion has played a big part
here, and has cut many gaps in it; and another later formation, called the
Orange sand, has in many places covered up, and now conceals the older strata.
The Tuscaloosa formation has another in its upper division; not as rich,
perhaps, as the lower, and is still more interfered with by erosions and by
Orange sand deposits, but of much importance to Aberdeen, because it lies up and
down the headwaters of your river and approaches quite near to your city. This
might well be called the Greenwood springs belt, for it appears in Monroe county
in greatest force in that vicinity. It is two or three miles in breadth,
extending to the high hills east of Buttahatchie River, opposite the mouth of
Sipsey, and southeastward from that point; on the west of the Buttahatchie it
tends northward, up Sipsey. This belt exhibits two classes of ore: one
superficial, found only on the tops of the ridge, as well as seen in two of the
cuts of the Kansas City, Memphis & Birmingham railroad, east and west of Wise's
gap; the other ore springs from a different source, and is found in the foot
hills near Greenwood springs. This last is a limonite that is formed from a
change of the carbonate; a carbonate I did not actually see, but know its
presence, not only from the resultant zodiac chambered ore seen there, but from
the abundance of springs charged with bicarbonate of iron. Of these the chief is
"Greenwood."
Aberdeen Commandery, U. D. was organized in 1891. Frank P. Jinkins is eminent
commander.
Wildy lodge No. 21, I. O. O. F., is an old lodge, of which W. S. Lindamood is
noble grand.
Eureka lodge No. 719, Knights of Honor, organized about 1875, with Dr. William
G. Sykes as dictator, is in a prosperous condition. It has about one hundred
members, and J. M. Acker is the dictator.
Castle Gray lodge No. 198, Knights of the Golden Rule, organized December 21,
1881, by Deputy Supreme Commander J. E. Hodges, has about one hundred members.
Apollo lodge No. 14, Knights of Pythias, established in 1878, with William
Howard as chancellor commander, now has a membership of about forty-five, and
Kirby Lann is its chancellor commander.
Aberdeen lodge No. 32, A. F. & A. M., was organized in 1837, with J. H. Lawson
as worshipful master, and the following members: David Hall, Nathaniel W.
Walton, T. B. Pollard, John Franks, James G. Williams, Daniel Burnett, Thomas J.
Ford, George Weight-man, Parker Alexander, A. R. Hunter, A. J. Holliday, John
Abbott and Alex Baker. Dr. William G. Sykes is now worshipful master. In 1884
the lodge erected a magnificent three-story brick temple at a cost of about
$38,000. This beautiful structure, which also contains the opera house, has a
seating capacity of six hundred.
Amory lodge No. 165, A. F. & A. M. , at Amory, organized with Hon. Wright
Cunningham as worshipful master. W. A. Griffith is now worshipful master. This
lodge was formed by the consolidation of lodges Nos. 165 and 178.
Euphemia Royal Arch chapter No. 13, at Aberdeen, was organized in 1847, with R.
H. Dalton as high priest. Frank P. Jinkins is the present high priest.
Aberdeen council, E. & S. M., No. 28, was organized in 1860, with B. B. Barker,
J. N. Walton and W. S. Vestal as first officials. Present officers are R. B.
Brannin, C. N. Simpson and S. H. Berg.
Other towns in this county are Amory, Smithville, Quincy, Gattman, Strongs,
Reynolds, Prairie and Muldon.
Back to: Mississippi Counties, Cities and Towns, 1891
Source: Biographical and Historical Memories of Mississippi, Goodspeed Publishing Company, 1891
