Byhalia, Mississippi
| Byhalia, Mississippi | |
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| Town | |
 Location of Byhalia, Mississippi |
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 Byhalia, Mississippi
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| Coordinates: 34°52′10″N 89°41′17″W / 34.86944°N 89.68806°WCoordinates: 34°52′10″N 89°41′17″W / 34.86944°N 89.68806°W | |
| Country | United States |
| State | Mississippi |
| County | Marshall |
| Area | |
| • Total | 2.9 sq mi (7.4 km2) |
| • Land | 2.9 sq mi (7.4 km2) |
| • Water | 0.0 sq mi (0.0 km2) |
| Elevation | 361 ft (110 m) |
| Population (2000) | |
| • Total | 1,302 |
| • Density | 246.8/sq mi (95.3/km2) |
| Time zone | Central (CST) (UTC-6) |
| • Summer (DST) | CDT (UTC-5) |
| ZIP code | 38611 |
| Area code(s) | 662 |
| FIPS code | 28-10060 |
| GNIS feature ID | 0667879 |
Byhalia (bye-HAIL-yah)), pronounced "bye-HAY-yah" by some residents, is a town in Marshall County, Mississippi. The population was 1,302 as of the 2010 census.
The town of Byhalia was founded in 1838 when C.W. Rains and Wash Poe purchased land at the intersection of Pigeon Roost Road (now Church Street) and the Collierville-Chulahoma Road (now Highway 309). Pigeon Roost Road was originally the Chickasaw Trail, a long-used Native American path followed by Spanish explorer Hernando DeSoto in 1541. Pigeon Roost Road had been improved in 1835 to accommodate the removal of the Chickasaw Nation to Indian Territory (now Oklahoma).[2]
Byhalia was named for a creek spelled Bihalee. The Chickasaw word was Dai-yi-il-ah, meaning “White Oak.” The U.S. Postal Service accepted the name Byhalia in 1846.
Byhalia's location had several advantages for an early settlement, lying near the crossroad site where the Pigeon Roost Road ran from Memphis to Oxford and . Much land in Georgia, Virginia, and North and South Carolina had been depleted from continuous tobacco planting and lack of crop rotation, making the newly opened territory in north Mississippi an inviting opportunity for emigrant farmers.
Entering the 1850s, Byhalia seemed to be developing as a key trade center in North Mississippi. Stagecoach service from Memphis to Oxford came through Byhalia in the late 1840s. Mail, light freight, and passengers traveled to and through Byhalia with this fast and reasonably comfortable means of transportation. As more settlers arrived, local commerce flourished and schools were established.
Holly Springs obtained a railroad in 1852, making the stage line obsolete. Since Byhalia was only a stop on the stage route, and the stage line could not effectively compete against the railroad from Memphis to Holly Springs or Oxford, service was suspended in 1856. Also devastating to Byhalia’s growth was the outbreak of the Civil War. More than 250 men from the area immediately surrounding Byhalia served in the Confederate Army.
After the war, Byhalia struggled through the changes of the Reconstruction period, with planters trying to deal with a market of free labor. A national financial depression hit in 1873 which lasted for several years. A severe freeze in the winter of 1873 blocked traffic on the Mississippi River and compounded the hardships of the depression.
Yellow fever epidemics were carried by steamboat passengers and poor sanitation throughout the Mississippi river cities along the main routes and in northern Mississippi in 1873, 1878 and 1879. Byhalia appears to have escaped the wrath of the fever, as few tombstones in the immediate area reflect deaths in the summer of 1878, which elsewhere resulted in high fatalities.
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Wikipedia