The Tupelo journal. (Tupelo, Miss.) 1876-1924, 1906-08-10
by col w /. CLAYTON.

41lO SANy " ANt<NAO 10 oACu0COO
at the crossing Of the Frisco and
Mobile and Ohio,sin Lee county,
Mississippi. It takes it's name
from a beautiful grove Of the
Tupelo gum, lying just north OF
the business part Of town, as
shall call it in the remainder Of
this article, believing town q
more euphonious name than city.
This grove Of Tupelo gum was
very beautiful until the last few
years. But some years ago the
town bought the tract of land
comprising the grove and sunk
five flowing wells among the
trees in order to make a lake for
fish and for boating for pleasure
seekers. The grove consisted of
about twenty acres, the trees
growing in a considerable de-
preston, and the water stood on
the land through the wet season,
and disappeared as the dry sea-
son came on, and this was the
life of the trees, as all who know
the tree will at once recognize.
1t is a native Indian name. The
tree is fully as tall as the pine,
with more body and less top. 1t
has very few limbs indeed, the
body being quite straight and
symmetrical, except there is fire.
quently a bulge at the ground ex-
tending some few feet up the
tree, somewhat as is often seen
in the cypress. When the city
fathers had the artesian wells
sunk in the grove, they got per-
mission from the Mobile and Ohio
railroad company to fill a trestle
under the railroad just at the
east side Of the grove, thus max
ing a beautiful body of water of
the extent of the grove; but the
action Of the water upon the
trees standing constantly in it is
proving very injurious and one
by one, like the old inhabitants
of the town. are passing out of
life, and falling prone into the
water of the lake. Right here /
desire in passing tts say that Tu-
pelo in the olden time, when the
town Nas ailSa built. came near
to a disaster in the way of "a name.
The grove of Tupelo gum was
generally called by the people of
the neighborhood Gum Pond, "
they really being unacquainted
with'the beautiful and euphonious
Indian name of Tupelo, and SO
the name of Gum Pond' clung
to it for quite a while, notwith-
standing the real name was al
ways Tupelo from the time the
town was laid off. The site of
Tupelo from Main street north
was a beautiful grove of oak and
hickory in 1860 when the town
was laid out by Harris & Thoma-
son, the owners Of the land. The
town, as originally plated, COW
cred only one quarter section of
land, then in Itawamba county,
and within one half mile of the
western boundary of the county.
Under such circumstances as
these it seemed a futile and idle
thing to mark on the map Of the
town a site for a court house, and
yet that is the very thing those
two old farmer map makers did,
selecting and dedicating a beauti-
full block Of about two hundred
and fifty feet square, slightly un-
dulating from the center toward
every size, and marked the same
court house lot" and thus dedi-
Gated it to that purpose. On it
now rests a magnificent court
house, of which / shall speak
later on. The town was laid out
when the Mobile and Ohio rail
road was nearing completion to
this point in 1860. In 1888 the
Kansas City. Memphis and Bir-
mingham railroad was built, cross
ing the Mobile andOhio at Tupelo,
and this is now the Frisco. Tupe-
10 is beautifully situated, the
lands around the crossings of the
two roads being level and grad
ually rising in slight undulatinQ
terracelike rises toward the
north. while there is a very slight
depression from the Frisco south,
which is now passing from the
field to the town, and also east
from the Mobile and Ohio the
water barely runs. Near to Tu-
pelo, and in a northwest direc
ton, was located the main post
and strong hold OF the powerful
tribe of the Chickasaw Indians, q
tribe ever friendly to the English
and Americans, but very hostile
to the French. Five miles west
of Tupelo's present site there
lived in the olden time, and up tc
1886, and probably some later,
two half-breed Indians named
Tolbert, being men of influence
with their tribe. Long before
Tupelo became a town, and be
fore any white man had set his
foot upon its soil, the ChickasaW
braves, painted in their war paint,
roamed over this delightful cou1,.
try. the posSessorS and owner;