Washington County, Mississippi

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

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Washington is named for U.S. President George Washington.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

County History

Washington County was created January 29, 1827 from Warren and Yazoo Counties. It was named for President George Washington and was one of the numerous counties formed from the so-called “New Purchase”, acquired from the Choctaws by the treaty of Doak’s Stand, October 20, 1820. Washington County was created by an act which recited that

“So much of the counties of Warren and Yazoo as lies west of the Yazoo River, beginning on the right bank of said river, where the Choctaw boundary line strikes the same; thence along said boundary to the Mississippi River; thence down the said river, to a point on the said river, where the east and west line between townships seventeen and eighteen strikes the same; thence along said line, to where the same strikes the Yazoo River; thence up the said last mentioned river, to the place of beginning, shall constitute a county, which shall be called the county of Washington.”

This created a triangular area, with the base on the Mississippi River and the apex on the Yazoo River. Sections two to nine of the same act organized the county. An act of February 12, 1828, declared the line between Warren and Washington counties to begin on the east bank of the Mississippi, “at the upper end of the plantation of Nerry Henley, and run so as to intersect the line between the counties of Warren and Yazoo, where the same strikes the Yazoo River”, and appointed commissioners to run the line. February 9, 1839, the line between the said counties was defined again as follows:

”commencing at the point on the Yazoo River, where the southern boundary of township nine, range six west of the Choctaw district, intersects it; thence running west on the southern boundary of township nine, range six, seven, eight, and nine, west to the Mississippi river.”

January 23, 1844, all that part of Washington County south of a line commencing on the Mississippi River between townships 13 and 14, and running east, between said townships, to the western boundary of Yazoo County, was taken to form the county of Issaquena. It later surrendered small portions of its territory to Bolivar and Sunflower counties and finally, on March 29, 1876, it surrendered other portions to help form the new county of Sharkey. Again, in 1918, part of its territory went to the new county of Humphreys.

The county lies wholly within the fertile Yazoo Delta, and many settlers of character and wealth were attracted to the rich region before its organization, and during the ‘30s and ‘40s, coming from the states of Kentucky, Georgia, Alabama, the Carolinas and the older parts of Mississippi.

Princeton, the first county seat, was at one time the chief town in the county. It was situated on the Mississippi River, about ten miles above the present southern boundary, and once had a population of about 600 people. After the county seat was removed to Greenville, Princeton rapidly declined, and is now entirely extinct. The old town of Greenville was a mile south of the present flourishing town of that name, but having been partially destroyed during the war and inundated by the river, the county seat was removed to the present point on the river. Greenville has long been one of the largest and most prosperous towns in the State; it had a population in 1900 of 7,642, in 1910 of 9,610 and in 1920, of 11,560. Greenville, like Greene County (1811) and the former seat (1802-1826) of Jefferson County, was named for General Nathanael Greene.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 761 square miles (1,972 km²), of which, 724 square miles (1,875 km²) of it is land and 37 square miles (97 km²) of it (4.90%) is water.

Neighboring Counties:

• Bolivar County (north)
• Sunflower County (northeast)
• Humphreys County (east)
• Sharkey County (southeast)
• Issaquena County (south)
• Chicot County, Arkansas (west)

Cities and Towns:

County Resources:

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