Starkville, Oktibbeha County, Mississippi, 1891
Starkville, the county town of Oktibbeha County, is located at the
intersection of the Mobile & Ohio, Illinois Central and Georgia Pacific railway
lines, and has a population of two thousand. It is the largest town and
principal shipping point of the county.
There are in this town live congregations of the following named religious
denominations, all of whom own good houses of worship: Methodist, Baptist,
Presbyterian, Associate Reformed Presbyterian, Cumberland Presbyterian and
Episcopalian. There are three colored churches, two Methodist and one Baptist,
all with substantial buildings and large congregations.
The Starkville Female institute, a chartered institution opened in 1889 by Rev.
T. G. Sellers, D. D., provides a complete collegiate course for young ladies.
The average attendance for the past seventeen years has been nearly two hundred
pupils. This school takes first rank among the seminaries of the South.
Starkville high school, founded in 1880 by its present principal, Mr. W. E.
Saunders, prepares its students for practical business lives or to enter
college. This school has an average attendance of one hundred and fifty. There
are also several private schools, besides two colored schools. The Agricultural
college of Mississippi was opened in 1880; it is pleasantly situated just
outside the city limits, and has an average attendance of three hundred and
fifty students. This college is ably managed by its president, S. D. Lee, and a
large faculty of the best men that can be secured in the country. It has enjoyed
unusual prosperity, is popular with the people of the state, and takes first
rank with the agricultural colleges in the country. $325,000 have been expended
in the equipment and support of this college. The curriculum embraces technical
training of students in agriculture, and to carry out this work a large farm has
been equipped as a model farm, on which the breeding and feeding of stock, the
growing of all crops adapted to the climate, fruits, vegetables, nursery stock,
etc., is pursued in a skilled manner. Among other things the college carries on
a creamery, from which butter and cream are shipped daily through the year to
towns in this and other states. The influence of the college is felt in the
surrounding country, and is shown by the attention being paid to stock growing
and the improvement of the lands, which is carried to a greater extent than will
be found in any other portion of the state.
Three papers are published in Starkville, The Southern Live- Stock Journal,
devoted specially to the live-stock interests of the South, a well edited paper,
and having a wide circulation. It is the leading stock and agricultural journal
of the Southern states. The East Mississippi Times and Oktibbeha Citizen,
political and general newspapers, both have a good circulation in the eastern
portion of the state.
Abert lodge No. 89, A. F. &. A. M. (formerly Oktibbeha lodge), was organized
under a dispensation granted in 1847 and was chartered 1848. O. L. Nash, past
master; William R. Cannon, W. M.; Simeon Muldrow, S. W.; S. W. Easley, J. W.;
Moses F. Westbrook, treasurer; William G. Lampkin, secretary; John T. Freeman,
S. D.: Alex Walker, J. D.; Charles Dibrell, S. and tyler.
Other lodges A. F. &. A. M. in this county are
Big Creek lodge No. 204, Double Springs lodge No. 251, and
Whitfield lodge No. 365, the last at Sturgis.
Ridgeley lodge No. 23, I. O. O. F., was organized December 23, 1846, with A. J.
Maxwell as N. G. E. L. Tarry is the present
N. G. Starkville lodge No. 783, K. of H., was organized October 29, 1 877, with
W. E. Saunders as dictator. T. M. Cummings is the present dictator.
Starkville council No. 900, A. L. of H., was established April 1, 1882, with C.
E. Gay as commander. The original membership was twenty-seven; the present
membership is fifty-seven.
Oktibbeha lodge No. 38, K. of P., was established November 23, 1883, with Simon
Field as C. C, and a membership of twenty-five. The members now number
twenty-six, and T. J. James is C. C.
Whitfield, Salem and Montgomery are other towns in Oktibbeha County.
Back to: Mississippi Counties, Cities and Towns, 1891
Source: Biographical and Historical Memories of Mississippi, Goodspeed Publishing Company, 1891
