Huntington, Mississippi

Huntington is a ghost town in Bolivar County, Mississippi, United States.

Huntington
Ghost town
Huntington Huntington
Coordinates: 33°33′52″N 91°10′17″W
Country	United States
State	Mississippi
County	Bolivar
Time zone	UTC-6 (Central (CST))
• Summer (DST)	UTC-5 (CDT)

Located on the Mississippi River, Huntington was an important shipping location.

History

The settlement was first called "Wilkerson" and "Wilkerson's Landing".[1][2]

Oscar L. Shelby was an early settler who moved to the area in the 1870s. Shelby was a merchant and landowner, and much of the town was built on his estate. Shelby later became a member of the Mississippi House of Representatives.[1]

An 1862 map shows the location of Wilkerson (later called Huntington)

Wilkerson had a small store and some cottage homes.[1]

In 1885, the "Arkansas City Branch" of the Louisville, New Orleans and Texas Railway was completed to Wilkerson. The name of the settlement was changed to "Huntington" to honor railroad magnate Collis Potter Huntington, who founded the Columbus and Greenville Railway.[3][4][5] The railway was built to this location because Huntington was directly across the Mississippi River from Arkansas City, Arkansas, which was the terminus of the St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railway (StLIM&S). A ferry owned by the StLIM&S would carry goods and railroad cars across the river.[5][6]

From 1885 to 1903, Huntington had a post office.[7]

Huntington was incorporated on March 6, 1886.[8] That same year, a large sawmill was established which supplied timber for local trade and to construct most of the buildings in Huntington.[1]

It was described that at Huntington, "bunco men, crap shooters, all kinds of gamblers...gathered from all parts of the country—Greenville, Vicksburg, Leland, etc.", and that "on levee workers' paydays...a crowd of 200 men and women quickly gathered for gambling and drinking", after which "fights commenced".[5]^:108

Huntington was flooded in 1890, 1897, and 1903.[4]

Although Huntington no longer exists, several nearby geographic features retain its name. A large body of land (on which the settlement was located) is now called "Huntington Point";[9] a sand bar in the Mississippi River is called "Huntington Bar";[10] a levee on the north shore of Huntington Point is called "Huntington Point Revetment";[11] and the location of the former settlement is accessible from "North Huntington Point Road".

References

1. Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Mississippi. 2. Goodspeed. 1891. pp. 754, 1073.
2. Annual Report of the Secretary of War. 2. U.S. Government Printing Office. 1883. p. 2186.
3. The Official Railway Guide: North American Freight Service Edition. National Railway Publication Company. 1892. p. 639.
4. Hall, Russell S.; Nowell, Princella W.; Childress, Stacy (2000). Washington County, Mississippi. Arcadia. pp. 8, 28, 83. ISBN 9780738506555.
5. Willis, John C. (2000). Forgotten Time: The Yazoo-Mississippi Delta After the Civil War. University of Virginia Press. pp. 108, 213. ISBN 9780813919829.
6. Thomson, J.C. (1890). The American and English Railroad Cases: A Collection of All the Railroad Cases in the Courts of Last Resort in America and England. Edward Thompson Company. p. 282.
7. "Post Offices - Mississippi". Jim Forte. Retrieved October 8, 2016.
8. Laws of the State of Mississippi. R.H. Henry, State Printer. 1886. p. 566.
9. U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Huntington Point
10. U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Huntington Bar
11. U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Huntington Point Revetment