Tippah County, Mississippi

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

County Seat: Ripley
Year Organized: 1836
Square Miles: 458

Court House:

P.O. Box 99
County Courthouse
Ripley, MS 38663-0099

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Tippah is named for Tippah, wife of Pontotoc, an important Chickasaw leader.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

County History

Tippah County was established February 9, 1836, and was named for the wife of Pontotoc, a Chickasaw Indian chief, the name signifying “cut off.” It was one of the twelve counties created out of the Chickasaw cession of 1882. It was originally a very large county of about 27 townships and embraced within its area a large part of the present county of Benton, as well as the northern portion of Union and the western portions of Alcorn and Prentiss counties. The county seat of Tippah is Ripley. Its original limits were defined as follows:

“Beginning at the point where the line between townships 6 and 7 intersects the basis meridian, to the northern boundary line of the State; thence east with the said boundary line, to the line between ranges 5 and 6 east; thence south with the said range line, to the line between townships 6 and 7; and thence west with the said township line to the beginning.”

In 1873, parts of the original county were detached to form parts of Alcorn, Benton and Union counties.

Many wealthy and substantial planters, merchants and professional men came to the region in the early ‘30s, and settled along the banks of its streams. Among the early settlements of those years, which flourished for a time, but are now moribund, may be mentioned Salem, Orizaba and Ruckersville. Salem was first settled in 1836, incorporated 1837. It was two or three miles west of Ashland in what was then Tippah County, and was absorbed by the latter place.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 460 square miles (1,191 km²), of which, 458 square miles (1,186 km²) of it is land and 2 square miles (5 km²) of it (0.45%) is water.

Neighboring Counties:

Hardeman County, Tennessee (north)
Alcorn County (northeast)
Prentiss County (southeast)
Union County (south)
Benton County (west)

Cities and Towns:

- Blue Mountain	town	Incorporated Area
- Dumas	town	Incorporated Area
- Falkner	town	Incorporated Area
- Ripley (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area
- Walnut	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."