Yalobusha County Mississippi

Hendersonville The town of Hendersonville was built four miles south of the present town of Coffeeville, near a small tributary of the Yalobusha River. It occupied the site of an old Indian village.

Captain Lake gives the following account of this town, which was his home for a short time in 1834:

"It was here that Col. T. C. McMacken, the celebrated hotel keeper, in the early history of North Mississippi, began his career. The mercantile firms of this town in 1834 were: Martin, Edwards & Co., John H. McKenney, Armour, Lake & Bridges, H. S. and W. Lake, and McCain & Co. The physicians of the town at that date were Thomas Vaughn, Robert Malone and _____ Murkerson. The following citizens were then living at that place: Thomas B. Ives, Murdock Ray, justice of the peace; Stephen Smith, blacksmith; Alfred McCaslin, blacksmith, and Joshua Weaver, constable. This town aspired to be the county seat of Yalobusha County, but failed in this, the seat of justice being located at Coffeeville, which was nearer the center of the county. Hendersonville then went down and ultimately lost its name, being absorbed in a farm known as 'Oakchickamau,' which was owned by Franklin E. Plummer. The names of this farm and of the county seat, Coffeeville, were later associated together in a stanza of poetry written by one E. Percy, an editor who settled at Coffeeville at an early date. Becoming very much incensed against the citizens of Coffeeville, he moved away, and afterwards wrote the following piece of doggerel:

"Upon a hill near Derden's Mill,
There is a place called Coffeeville;
The meanest town I ever saw
Save Plummer's town. 'Oakchickamau.'⁸¹

Sardinia⁸² The town of Sardinia was located on the Craig plantation in Yalobusha county near the Yacona river, one mile north of the present church of Sardinia. It had two or three mercantile firms and was a good business point during the flush times. It was a smaller place, however, than Pharsalia, which sprang up on the same river a few miles below. The population of Sardinia at the time of its greatest prosperity was about one hundred and fifty. The Bradfords, Kuykendalls, Bensons, Craigs, Carringtons, Reeds, and Dr. Moore lived at or near this place. A Cumberland Presbyterian church was built here at an early date. Colonel Kendle had a bank at Sardinia in the 30's. This town had disappeared by 1856. The principal cause of its death was the rivalry of the towns along the old Mississippi and Tennessee (now Illinois Central) railroad. Part of the former site of the place is in cultivation, the rest is furrowed by "gullies" and ditches.

Preston⁸³ The village of Preston was situated near Scobey, in Yalobusha county, and about fourteen miles north of Grenada. It was settled about 1835 and at the time of its greatest prosperity, had a population of about two hundred and fifty. In 1840 it was incorporated by the Legislature. Some of the inhabitants were the Simmons family, the Harpers, the Bridgers, the Townes and the Calhouns. Doctors Sutton, Payne, Neville and Calhoun were the local physicians and the Rev. Hayward, the resident Baptist minister. At one time Preston contained about half a dozen stores. Among its business firms were Duke and Co., and Evans and Co. It also had an excellent school. The town began to decay about 1858, when most of its inhabitants removed to Garner (now Scobey), on the Mississippi and Tennessee (now Illinois Central) railroad. There was probably only one store left in the place in 1867, and a few months later it was finally abandoned. The only residence now standing on the site of old Preston is the Simmons residence, now occupied by Mr. J. D. Crenshaw.

Extinct Towns| AHGP Mississippi

Footnotes:
81. See Publications of the Mississippi Historical Society, Vol. III., page
82. The information on which this sketch is based was derived from Mrs. Rowland, of Oxford, Miss., and Messrs. J. A. Kuykendall and John M. Kuykendall, of Harrison Station.
83. The information on which this sketch is based was furnished to the writer by Capt. L. Lake, of Oxford, Mississippi: Messrs. W. C. Mitchell, John M. Kuykendall, of Harrison Station, Mississippi., and Mr. J. H. Dame, of Tillatoba, Mississippi.

Source: The Mississippi Historical Commission Publications, Volume V, Edited by Franklin L. Riley,
Secretary, 1902.