Leflore County, Mississippi

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

County Seat: Greenwood
Year Organized: 1871
Square Miles: 592

Court House:

P.O. Box 250
County Courthouse
Greenwood, MS 38935-0250

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Leflore is named for Choctaw leader Greenwood LeFlore. Greenwood LeFlore or Greenwood Le Fleur (June 3, 1800 – August 31, 1865) was an American Indian/European-American leader of the Choctaws and was a Mississippi senator. A wealthy and regionally influential trader with many connections in state and federal government, he was elected chief of the entire Choctaw tribe shortly before the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek, becoming the first Principal Chief of a Choctaw Nation that had previously been governed by regional chiefs. During the American Civil War he sided with the Union and lost most of his valuables.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

County History

Leflore County was formerly a part of Sunflower, Carroll and Tallahatchie counties and was established March 15, 1871, during the administration of Governor Alcorn. It was directed, by the act creating the county, that the county records, together with the buildings and grounds at McNutt, now in Leflore County, should be retained by Leflore, and that the county seat should be located at Greenwood. Greenwood originally was known as Williams Landing but was re-named for Greenwood Leflore in 1844. Leflore shipped his cotton from Williams Landing, in what was then the extreme west of Carroll County, near the juncture of the Tallahatchie and Yalobusha Rivers.

Leflore County was named for Greenwood Leflore to complement the name of the town of Greenwood, which dates from 1844. LeFlore County, Oklahoma, also was named for him. Greenwood Leflore (1800-1865) was the principal chief of the Choctaw at the time of removal and was one of the negotiators of the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 606 square miles (1,570 km²), of which, 592 square miles (1,533 km²) of it is land and 14 square miles (37 km²) of it (2.38%) is water.

Neighboring Counties:

Tallahatchie County (north)
Grenada County (northeast)
Carroll County (east)
Holmes County (southeast)
Humphreys County (southwest)
Sunflower County (west)

Cities and Towns:

- Greenwood (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area
- Itta Bena	city	Incorporated Area
- Morgan City	town	Incorporated Area
- Schlater	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."