Yazoo City, Yazoo County, Mississippi, 1891
The site of Yazoo City, the justice seat of Yazoo County, was an Indian
reservation, entered by Greenwood Le Fleur in 1827, under the provisions of the
treaty of Washington, concluded January 20, 1825, with the Choctaw Indians.
Yazoo City was first called Hannon's Bluff and afterward incorporated as
Manchester, and subsequently as Yazoo City, the name having been changed about
1845. This town, the gem city of the world-famous Yazoo, Miss., delta country,
is situated upon the eastern bank of the Yazoo fiver. The site is a well chosen
and wonderfully advantageous one, gently sloping back to the bluffs in the rear.
A better or prettier site for a city could not have been selected. At its
wharves are always seen steamboats loading and unloading, while along the levee
run the tracks of the Illinois Central railroad, its depot, freight and
warehouses presenting an equally busy scene. Along its principal business street
are large, substantial brick business houses, fronted with iron, stone and plate
glass, presenting a metropolitan appearance, giving the stranger an agreeable
impression of its commercial importance. The streets are broad, beautifully
graded, macadamized with gravel and well guttered.
Its population is five thousand two hundred and forty-seven, and its growth is
steady, it having more than doubled since the close of the war. During the past
few years improvements have been more rapid and of a much superior nature. Owing
to its splendid navigation and railroad system it should, and doubtless will,
become Mississippi's greatest industrial city. Its present industries consist of
one large sawmill, a cotton seed mill, containing all the latest improved
machinery, a large, first-class compress, a mill and gin, one ice factory and
four substantial brick cotton warehouses. There are also brickyards, making an
excellent quality of brick, used locally and shipped to other points. Two
creameries are in operation, turning out large quantities of fine butter. Two
amply capitalized banking houses furnish satisfactory facilities.
Two steamboat lines run regular packets from Yazoo City. The river navigation
extends north over two hundred miles, and to the Mississippi river south,
connecting with the Big and Little Sunflower rivers, and Lake George, etc. Some
twelve hundred and fifty miles of navigable rivers, penetrating the South's
greatest cotton and corn regions, are made accessible and tributary to Yazoo
City, which, by reason of its comprehensive railroad and river navigation
system, should naturally develop into a great jobbing center, as well as an
industrial city.
In the "matter of public schools, Yazoo City is well supplied, there being not
less than three, with a large enrollment of pupils. There are also private
schools, notably, the convent or Catholic school. There are also five white
churches in the city, some of whose edifices of worship are noble and imposing
specimens of architectural beauty. The principal civic societies are also
represented by flourishing lodges, while a public library and social club are
attractive and pleasing features. There is an opera house with a seating
capacity of seven hundred.
The city limits extend one mile north and south, and a mile and a half east and
west. The sidewalks are usually of brick. Another attractive feature is the
great number of ornamental trees, by which the streets are shaded, as well as
the evergreen shrubbery and semi-tropical exotics adorning the grounds of the
different residences. The city has an efficient and well-equipped fire
department, having two engines and one hook and ladder company.
The county courthouse, a beautiful and imposing structure, was erected at a cost
of $80,000. A substantial city jail has also been built at an outlay of $12,500.
A fine iron bridge has been built across the Yazoo River, in order to facilitate
trade from the west, at a cost of 130,000.
Socially, as well as in a business sense, the people of Yazoo City are a very
superior class, being noted for enterprise and progressive tendencies. They have
full faith in the future of their charming little city, and are ever ready to
further its interests by all means within their power. The city government is
vested in a mayor and board of aldermen, numbering eight, a clerk, treasurer,
assessor and collector, attorney and city marshal. It is a popular
administration, and is made up of men who guard the interests of the public with
conservative care.
The local capitalists are not averse to engaging in new enterprises, and will
meet out- side men of means half way in the matter of sites for manufacturing
establishments or taking stock in the same. But Yazoo City has something better
to offer the manufacturer and capitalist than a mere subsidy of money or land,
and that is location, which, after all, is what insures the success of every
industrial enterprise. By its railroad system not less than thirty counties in
Mississippi and six different states and territories are reached, while its fine
navigable river makes tributary the most fertile and productive portion of the
lower Mississippi valley, with all the tributary streams of the Father of
Waters. The raw material can be floated to its factory doors, almost without
cost, while the same highway, aided by the rail-road, serves to distribute the
product to every great consuming center in the country. The First National bank
was organized in September, 1886, with a capital paid up of $50,000, to which
has since been added a large surplus. It is located in a new building at the
corner of Main and Bridge streets, specially arranged for the business, the
interior being arranged in modern style, while tire and burglar-proof vault and
safes effectually guard the treasure. A general banking, exchange, deposit and
collection business is transacted by this bank, and any one requiring the
services of a reliable correspondent in this section will do well to engage its
services. The officers of the First National are: L. Lippman, president; Charles
Mann, vice president; and E. L. Bennett, cashier, under whose careful and
conservative management its affairs have thriven and the business widely
extended. The directory is made up of L. Lippman, Charles Mann, L. B. Warren, J.
H. D. Haverkamp, John Lear, E. A. Jackson and E. Drenning, who are all well
known as leading capitalists, merchants and professional men of Yazoo City. The
bank's correspondents are the Mercantile National, New York; Union National, New
Orleans; Kentucky National, Louisville; and the Prairie State National, Chicago.
The establishment of this bank was the outgrowth of Yazoo City's urgent demand
for increased banking facilities.
The Bank of Yazoo City, the pioneer banking house of Yazoo City, was established
in the year 1876, with a paid-up capital of $100,000, to which has since been
added a large surplus. This bank has the handsomest and most attractive building
on Main Street. The interior is fitted up in elegant style, such as prevails in
metropolitan banking houses, and is equipped with fireproof vaults, steel safes
and time lock. The building was erected at a cost of $10,000. This institution
does a general banking business in all its branches, and is regarded as one of
the safest banks in the state. Its correspondents are the National Park bank,
New York, and the Louisiana National bank, of New Orleans. The officers are R.
C. Shepherd, president; Charles Roberts, vice president, and S. R. Berry,
cashier, men of extensive experience as bank managers, who are well known and
stand high in financial circles. The directors are R. C. Shepherd, J. H. D.
Haverkamp, J. J. Fouche, J. N. Gilruth, J. F. Powell, William Hamel, W. C. Craig
and Louis Wise, all of whom will be recognized as being among Yazoo City's
leading capitalists, largest and most successful business men and manufacturers.
Back to: Mississippi Counties, Cities and Towns, 1891
Source: Biographical and Historical Memories of Mississippi, Goodspeed Publishing Company, 1891
