Attala County, Mississippi

Attala County History, Geography, Demographics, Cities and Towns, and Education

County Seat: Kosciusko
Year Organized: 1833
Square Miles: 735

Court House:

230 West Washington Street
County Courthouse
Kosciusko, MS 39090-3635

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Attala is named for Attala or Atala, a fictional Native American heroine from an early 19th Century novel by François-René de Chateaubriand.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

County History

Attala County was established on the 23d of December, 1833, and was one of the sixteen counties carved from the Choctaw cession of 1830. The name is derived from the heroine (Atala) of an Indian romance written by Chateaubriand. As Attala has the distinction of retaining its original boundaries, as laid down in 1833, they are quoted, as follows:

"Beginning at the northeast corner of Leake County, and running thence west with the line between townships, 12 and 13, to the line between ranges five and six east; thence south with said line between ranges five and six to the center of township 12, of range 5 east; thence directly west to the Big Black River; thence up said river to the point at which the line between 16 and 17 crosses said river; thence east with the line between nine and ten east; thence south to the place of beginning."

The Choctaw boundary line of 1820 (treaty of Doak’s Stand) runs through the extreme southwestern corner of the county. Kosciusko is the largest town and the county seat of Attala County.

The Attala County Court House has burned on three separate occasions. The first fire on 28 July 1858 was the most devastating as all records were destroyed. For this reason, no records exist prior to August 1858. The second fire was in July 1860 and although the records on hand were somewhat meager, none were lost. The third fire occured on 26 July 1896 and some records were lost including the county marriage records.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 737 square miles (1,909 km²), of which, 735 square miles (1,904 km²) of it is land and 2 square miles (5 km²) of it (0.27%) is water.

Neighboring Counties:

Montgomery County (north)
Choctaw County (northeast)
Winston County (east)
Leake County (south)
Madison County (southwest)
Holmes County (west)
Carroll County (northwest)

Cities and Towns:

- Ethel	town	Incorporated Area
- Kosciusko (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area
- McCool	town	Incorporated Area
- Sallis	town	Incorporated Area

County Resources:

Enter County Resources and Information Here

County Resources

The history of our nation was a prolonged struggle to define the relative roles and powers of our governments: federal, state, and local. And the names given the counties, our most locally based jurisdictions, reflects the "characteristic features of this country!"

But age, size and colorful names of our counties isn't the only reason to explore counties' role in American history, or the history of county government itself. In fact, the story of county government reflects the larger meanings of American history.

Today's counties are the most flexible, locally responsive and creative governments in the US. They are the most diverse, varying in size, population, geography, and governmental structure. In their politics and policies, they express a 1990's political slogan "Think globally, act locally."