Bolivar County, Mississippi

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

County Seat: Cleveland
Year Organized: 1836
Square Miles: 876

Court House:

P.O. Box 698
County Courthouse
Cleveland, MS 38732-0698

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Bolivar is named for South American revolutionary Simón Bolívar who freed much of South America from Spanish rule. Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar Palacios y Blanco, or commonly known as Simón Bolívar (July 24, 1783 – December 17, 1830), was one of the most important leaders of Spanish America's successful struggle for independence from Spain, along with Argentine general José de San Martín.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

County History

The County of Bolivar was created February 9, 1836 from the Choctaw Cession of 1830 during the administration of Governor Charles Lynch. It was named for General Simon Bolivar, a South American patriot. It contained 40 townships with an area of 1440 square miles. Its present area is 879 square, miles.

The County is now divided into two judicial districts, the line of division running north and south. Rosedale, situated on the Mississippi River, is the county seat of the first district, and Cleveland, situated on the main line of the Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad, is the county seat of the second district.

The first county seat of Bolivar County was located at Bolivar Landing, and again, it was located at a point on a high sand ridge about two miles northwest of the present town of Beulah, this site being known to this day as "the old courthouse field." Subsequently, the county seat was removed to Prentiss on the Mississippi River opposite Napoleon, Arkansas.

The first settlers of Bolivar County were planters who found the forty to sixty foot deep Delta soil to be rich and fertile. The land had to first be laboriously cleared of the evergreen, cane and bamboo, but once cleared, the settlers found rivers, bayous, and lakes filled with edible fish, such as perch, jack, trout, bass, and big river catfish weighing as much as 200 pounds. Game, such as wild ducks, turkeys, deer, and quail were found in large numbers. The levee system was first implemented during the 1850's to the 1860's.

The first settlement in Bolivar County was Georgetown, located in the southern part of the county. Georgetown was a river landing, and was located on a plantation called Timber Lake Place, and belonging to John L. MARTIN of Kentucky.

The County Courthouse was burned by Federals in 1863 and entombed by flood in 1865.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 906 square miles (2,346 km²), of which, 876 square miles (2,270 km²) of it is land and 29 square miles (76 km²) of it (3.25%) is water.

Neighboring Counties:

Coahoma County (north)
Sunflower County (east)
Washington County (south)
Desha County, Arkansas (west)

Cities and Towns:

- Alligator	town	Incorporated Area
- Benoit	town	Incorporated Area
- Beulah	town	Incorporated Area
- Boyle	town	Incorporated Area
- Cleveland (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area
- Duncan	town	Incorporated Area
- Gunnison	town	Incorporated Area
- Merigold	town	Incorporated Area
- Mound Bayou	city	Incorporated Area
- Pace	town	Incorporated Area
- Renova	town	Incorporated Area
- Rosedale	city	Incorporated Area
- Shaw	city	Incorporated Area
- Shelby	city	Incorporated Area
- Winstonville	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."