Chickasaw County, Mississippi

Chickasaw County, Mississippi
East façade of Chickasaw County Court House
Location in the U.S. state of Mississippi
Mississippi's location in the U.S.
Founded	1836
Named for	Chickasaw people
Seat	Houston and Okolona
Largest city	Houston
Area
• Total	504 sq mi (1,305 km2)
• Land	502 sq mi (1,300 km2)
• Water	2.5 sq mi (6 km2), 0.5%
Population
• (2010)	17,392
• Density	35/sq mi (14/km²)
Congressional district	1st
Time zone	Central: UTC-6/-5
Website	www.chickasawcoms.com

Chickasaw County is a county located in the U.S. state of Mississippi. As of the 2010 census, the population was 17,392. Its county seats are Houston and Okolona. The county is named for the Chickasaw people, who lived in this area for hundreds of years. Most were removed to Indian Territory in the 1830s, but some remained and became citizens of the state and United States.

Early in the 20th century, the first agricultural high school in Mississippi opened in the unincorporated community of Buena Vista. Cully Cobb, a pioneer of southern agriculture, long-term farm publisher, and an official of the Agricultural Adjustment Administration in Washington, D.C., was the superintendent of the school from 1908-1910.

The Mississippi state legislature created Chickasaw County in 1836, following the cession of the land by the Chickasaw Indians. It was quickly settled by Americans from the east, mainly from the Southern states. By the time of the Civil War, riverfront landings had been developed by the many large cotton plantations worked by African American slaves, who outnumbered the white residents of the county.

The American Civil War devastated the local economy, completely destroying the plantation-based infrastructure of Chickasaw County. The newly freed slaves had to adapt to the new labor system, in which the white landowners still retained partial control over their lives through the practice of sharecropping. The economy declined again in the late 19th century, when falling cotton prices reduced both black and white residents to poverty. Farmers eventually began diversifying their crops, and the economy slowly began to improve.