Kemper County, Mississippi

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

County Seat: De Kalb
Year Organized: 1833
Square Miles: 766

Court House:

P.O. Box 188
County Courthouse
De Kalb, MS 39328-0188

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Kemper is named for Reuben Kemper, a soldier in the Seminole Wars and Mexican-American Wars. Born in Fauquier County, Virginia, Kemper and his brothers Nathan and Samuel settled in Feliciana, near Baton Rouge, Spanish West Florida, shortly after 1800. Expelled from the province by the Spanish authorities in a dispute over land titles, the Kemper brothers organized a small force in the Mississippi Territory and returned, declaring West Florida to be independent. They attempted to capture Baton Rouge in 1804, but were defeated. The following year Spanish forces captured all three brothers while on U.S. soil, but they were rescued by U.S. forces as they were being taken down the Mississippi River.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

County History

Kemper County received its name from Colonel Reuben Kemper (1770-1827), a native of Virginia, who moved with his brothers Samuel and Nathan to the vicinity of Fort Adams, became a leader of the West Florida Rebellion against Spain in 1811, and fought under Jackson at the Battle of New Orleans. He was of a somewhat reckless and fiery disposition, but intensely patriotic and won distinction in the service of his country.

Kemper County was one of the sixteen counties formed in 1833 from the territory acquired from the Choctaws by the treaty of Dancing Rabbit, and the act of December 23, 1833, thus defined its boundaries:

"The territory within townships nine, ten, eleven and twelve, of ranges fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, and nineteen."

The county seat is DeKalb near the center of the county. Numerous other small towns are scattered over its area, among which are Sucarnoochee, Electric Mills, Porterville, Scooba, Enondale, and Wahalak on the railroad.

The County Courthouse was destroyed in 1882, All records were destroyed.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 767 square miles (1,987 km²), of which, 766 square miles (1,984 km²) of it is land and 1 square miles (2 km²) of it (0.11%) is water.

Neighboring Counties:

Noxubee County (north)
Sumter County, Alabama (east)
Lauderdale County (south)
Neshoba County (west)
Winston County (northwest)

Cities and Towns:

- De Kalb (County Seat)	town	Incorporated Area
- Scooba	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."