Lauderdale County, Mississippi

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

County Seat: Meridian
Year Organized: 1833
Square Miles: 704

Court House:

410 Constitution Avenue
County Courthouse
Meridian, MS 39301-0000

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Lauderdale is named for colonel James Lauderdale, who was killed at the Battle of New Orleans in the War of 1812

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

County History

Lauderdale County was established December 23, 1833, while Charles Lynch was acting-governor. By the original act it embraced "all the territory within townships 5, 6, 7 and 8, of ranges 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 and 19," and has an area of about 19 townships.

Lauderdale County, as recited in the establishing act, was named "in memory of Col. James Lauderdale, who fell in battle at New Orleans". James Lauderdale, of Tennessee, a member of John Coffee's mounted brigade, was wounded in the battle of Talladega during the Creek Wars and was killed in the night attack on the British below New Orleans on December 23, 1814. The counties of Lauderdale in Alabama and Tennessee also were named for him. Marion undoubtedly was named for General Francis Marion, for whom Marion County had been named in 1811. Marion Station derived its name from the town of Marion.

Its early county seat was located at Marion until 1866; at Marion Station from 1866 to 1870; it was then removed to Meridian, the present county seat. In addition to the old county seat of Marion, the towns of Alamutcha and Daleville, and the villages of Sageville and Chunkeyville, were settled at a very early date in the history of the county. All four towns are now extinct.

Alamutcha was once an Indian village, situated not far from Kewanee.
Daleville is now known as Lizelia, and was about ten miles northwest of Meridian; it was named for Gen. Sam Dale, who first settled there.
A few miles distant is Cooper Institute, now known as Daleville.
Sageville was near the present station of Okatibbee; E.J. Rew and Abram Burwell were citizens of the old village.
Chunkeyville was absorbed by Chunkey Station, on the Alabama & Vicksburg railroad.
Before the Civil war, Lauderdale Springs was a popular health resort.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 715 square miles (1,853 km²), of which, 704 square miles (1,822 km²) of it is land and 12 square miles (30 km²) of it (1.65%) is water.

Neighboring Counties:

Kemper County (north)
Sumter County, Alabama (east)
Choctaw County, Alabama (southeast)
Clarke County (south)
Newton County (west)

Cities and Towns:

- Marion	town	Incorporated Area
- Meridian (County Seat)	city	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."