Grenada
County was formed by an act of the Legislature on May 9, 1879
from lands taken from Carroll, Choctaw, Tallahatchie, and
Yalobusha Counties. The city of Grenada, which was incorporated
on February 27, 1836, was the largest town among the four
counties which were pared to form Grenada County, and it was
the natural choice to serve as the new county's seat of government.
The land from which
Grenada County was formed was a part of the Choctaw Indian
lands ceded to the United States under the treaty of Dancing
Rabbit Creek in 1830. The earliest known white settlers there
were missionaries who established an Indian mission school
in 1815 near what later became the town of Elliot.
The first town
organized in the area was Chocchuma, where the land office
for the sale of the Choctaw Indian lands was located. Although
the public sale of the Choctaw lands did not start until 1833,
two politicians and land speculators. Hiram Runnels and Franklin
Plummer were able to purchase choice sites along the banks
of the Yalobousha River from individuals who received the
land directly under the terms of the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit
Creek. The two plots of land were later sold to other parties
and eventually became the rival towns of Pittsburg and Tullahoma.
Town lots went on sale in Pittsburg in October, 1833 and in
Tullahoma in February, 1834.
The two towns,
which were separated only by a section line (now Line Street
in Grenada), both prospered and became sharp rivals. In 1835,
Tullahoma attempted to annex Pittsburg, and Pittsburg retaliated
with an effort to annex Tullahoma. The governor refused both
annexation requests.
|
