Pontotoc County, Mississippi

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

County Seat: Pontotoc
Year Organized: 1836
Square Miles: 497

Court House:

P.O. Box 209
County Courthouse
Pontotoc, MS 38863-0209

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Pontotoc is named for a Chickasaw Native American leader called Pontotoc. The name pontotoc is an Indian word signifying “weed prairie,” and was the name of a Chickasaw chief, though historians give it other meanings.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

County History

Pontotoc County is one of the twelve large counties created February 9, 1836, out of the Chickasaw cession of 1832, and is situated in the northeastern part of the State. It originally embraced parts of the present counties of Lee and Union. In 1866, it contributed from its eastern territory several townships to assist in forming the county of Lee, and in 1870 it was shorn of other parts when Union County was organized. The name pontotoc is an Indian word signifying “weed prairie,” and was the name of a Chickasaw chief, though historians give it other meanings.

It was in the southeastern part of this county, near the little creek Chowappa, that the treaty of Ponotoc was concluded, whereby the Chickasaws relinquished all their remaining lands in the State. In the year 1834, T.C. McMackin, who had kept a hotel at the original location of the Pontotoc land office, came into possession of the present site of Pontotoc town. He laid off the town and was of sufficient influence to move the old town of Pontotoc to the present site. Emigrants from Virginia, the Carolinas, Tennessee, north Alabama and Georgia, as well as from the older parts of Mississippi, rapidly settled the region, attracted by the cheap and fertile lands of the new cession. It was long regarded as the “garden spot” of the South by the pioneers seeking homes in the new Southwest. Pontotoc is the county seat, was incorporated in 1837. The United States land office was located in that place and the town was fairly established at an early day

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 501 square miles (1,298 km²), of which, 497 square miles (1,288 km²) of it is land and 4 square miles (9 km²) of it (0.73%) is water.

Neighboring Counties:

Union County (north)
Lee County (east)
Chickasaw County (south)
Calhoun County (southwest)
Lafayette County (west)

Cities and Towns:

- Algoma	town	Incorporated Area
- Ecru	town	Incorporated Area
- Pontotoc (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area
- Sherman	town	Incorporated Area
- Thaxton	town	Incorporated Area

County Resources:

Enter County Resources and Information Here

County Resources

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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."