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Extinct Towns & Villages of
Yazoo County, MS
Extract taken from
Publication of the Mississippi Historical
Society, By the Mississippi Historical Society,
Edited by Franklin L. Riley, Secretary, Volume V, Oxford, Mississippi, 1902, pgs 381-382 , from chapter entitled
“Extinct Towns and Villages of Mississippi” by Franklin L. Riley
Submitted by Debora Reese
Beattie’s Bluff - When the county of Yazoo was first created (1832) Beattie’s Bluff, which was twelve or fifteen
miles northwest of Canton, was made the seat of justice. The court house, stores and other building were
made of hewn logs. In 1829 the county seat was moved to Benton and the town of Beattie’s Bluff dwindled away.
Now a vestige of the place is left at the present day, the old site being a cultivated field.
Benton – In 1828 William
T. Gadberry removed to Yazoo county from South Carolina and entered a tract of land upon which he built a log house
for his residence. This was the beginning of the town of Benton, which in 1829 was made county seat of Yazoo
county. The place developed very rapidly and became the center of trade for a large section of country.
In 1836 it was incorporated by the Legislature. Other acts of he Legislature which relate to the charter
of this place bear the following dates: 1837, 1842 and 1846. In a few years the first courthouse, which was
built of logs, was replaced by a beautiful two-story brick building. A school house, churches, and elegant
residences were erected at this place. Among its leading resident lawyers were R. S. Holt, I. R. Burus, and
Ronan Harden. Among the prominent merchants of this place were ____ Fisher, James Rosslen, E. and N. O’Reilly,
R. T. Jennings, Alex. McGaughey, and Jas. Blundell.
In
1849 the seat of justice of Yazoo county was removed to Yazoo City. Mr. Bowman says that “with the removal
of the county seat, Benton beagn to decline and each year its population lessens, and the few houses left are dilapidated,
dingy, decaying, and timbling down. Its population is about forty or fifty. It has two or three small
stores, which do a limited neighborhood business.”
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