Carroll County, Mississippi

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

County Seat: Carrollton
Year Organized: 1833
Square Miles: 628

Court House:

1 Pinson Square
County Courthouse
Carrollton, MS 38917

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Carroll is named for Charles Carroll of Carrollton, last surviving signer of the U.S. Declaration of Independence. Charles Carroll of Carrollton (September 19 1737 – November 14 1832) was a delegate to the Continental Congress and later United States Senator for Maryland. He was the only Catholic signer of the Declaration of Independence. He was the longest lived signer of the Declaration of Independence and the Continental Congress, dying at the age of 95.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

County History

Carroll County was established by the Mississippi legislature on December 23, 1833 from land ceded by the Choctaw Indians under the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek 1830. It was named for Charles Carroll, one of the men who signed the Declaration of Independence. Because of it's original size, 908 square miles, Carroll County has two county seats, Carrollton and Vaiden.

In 1870, large portions of Carroll County were used to form three other counties - Leflore, Grenada, and Montgomery, reducing the county to its present size of 615 square miles.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 635 square miles (1,643 km²), of which, 628 square miles (1,626 km²) of it is land and 7 square miles (18 km²) of it (1.07%) is water.

Neighboring Counties:

Grenada County (north)
Montgomery County (east)
Attala County (southeast)
Holmes County (south)
Leflore County (west)

Cities and Towns:

- Carrollton (County Seat)	town	Incorporated Area
- North Carrollton	town	Incorporated Area
- Sidon	town	Incorporated Area
- Vaiden	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."