Lee County, Mississippi

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

County Seat: Tupelo
Year Organized: 1866
Square Miles: 450

Court House:

P.O. Box 1785
County Courthouse
Tupelo, MS 38802-1785

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Lee is named for Confederate American Civil War general Robert E. Lee.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

County History

Lee County, taken from the eastern part of Pontotoc County and the western part of Itawamba County, was established on December 10, 1866, pursuant to an enabling act of October 26, 1866, which provided that the question of "county" or "no county" was to be submitted to the voters living within the boundaries of the proposed new county at an election to be held on twenty days' notice after the assembling of the commissioners on November 12, 1866. The act, by its terms, was to be inoperative until it had been determined that the vote was in favor of the creation of the new county. The election was held on December 10, 1866; presuming that the result of the election was declared on the same day, this was the effective date of the creation of Lee County.

E.G. Thomas, C.A. Marshall, Jesse Hunt, James R. Harrali, Burrell Jackson, W.H. Calhoun and Jacob Bardin were appointed commissioners to organize the new county by the original act, and the first courts were directed to be held at Saltillo, pending the selection of a permanent seat of justice at a special election, when Tupelo was chosen April 15, 1867.

The old brick court house, erected in 1871, at a cost of $25,000, was burned in 1873. It was replaced by a brick structure which was also destroyed by fire in 1904. The present court house was erected at a cost of $60,000. The largest town is Tupelo, the county seat

The Courthouse was destroyed by fire in 1873 and 1904

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 453 square miles (1,174 km²), of which, 450 square miles (1,164 km²) of it is land and 4 square miles (9 km²) of it (0.78%) is water.

Neighboring Counties:

Prentiss County (north)
Itawamba County (east)
Monroe County (southeast)
Chickasaw County (southwest)
Pontotoc County (west)
Union County (northwest)

Cities and Towns:

- Baldwyn	city	Incorporated Area
- Guntown	town	Incorporated Area
- Plantersville	town	Incorporated Area
- Saltillo	city	Incorporated Area
- Shannon	town	Incorporated Area
- Tupelo (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area
- Verona	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."