The Aberdeen examiner. [volume] (Aberdeen, Miss.) 1866-current, 1922-08-11
Aberdeen and Monroe County

Monroe County, Miss, named for
James Monroe and organized in the
year 1921, is comprised of territory
originally belonging to the Chicka-
saw Indians, and has population of
$4,000. That part of the county
east of the Tombigbee river, up the
river as far as the ancient town of
Cotton Gin Port, and thence east of
the famous Gaines Trace Road, was
ceded to the United States by treaty
with the Chickasaw Ind ans on Sep
TENDER 20, 1916; that part of the
county now west of the Tombigbee
river was partly Ch,ckasaw territory
ceded to the United States Govern
ment about the time Of the Dancing
Rabbit Treaty, Of Sept. %, 1880;
that treaty was in Choctaw teri :
tory but was participated in by both
tribes of Indians and fully ratified
by both tribes with the Government
later, and the Ind ans were removed
to Indian Territory, now the State of
Oklahoma. The County was organ
lied before the territory west of the
river was acquired, and hence was
originally bounded by the Alabama
line on the East, and the Tombigbee
river and Gaines Trace on the west.
Later Lowndes County on the south
was organized, and Monroe was ex-
tended west of the river; it now con-
tains about 764 square miles, and
lies almost in a square form, and is
in both surveys The county has had
three several county SITES. When i.
lay wholly east Of the river, the frs.
county site was at Hamilton, a town
now wholly extinct, and situated
near the old Alexander place It was
later removed to Athens, about seven
miles northeast Of Aberdeen and
when the county was extended ives
ot tha river, about 1910, the county
Ste was removed to Abe deem, where
it still remains.
Aberdeen was or ginalr named
Dundee, by Robert Cord n, a dis
t.nguished and wealthy Scot hnan,
a pioneer, who mauieI a dau liter
Of the late Joe WALTON Of said coun-
IT,, and the father OF Senator James
Gordon. The founder of the town
took offense at the way the people
pronounced the name Dundee, put
ting the accent on the first syllable
instead of the second syl able; he
then changed the name t. Aberdeen,
as he quantity said, so the people
could not mispronounce it; both
names, of course were taken from
his beloved Scotland
That part of Monroe County in
which is situated the City of Aber-
deem and which lies west of the Tom
bigbee River, is largely prairie land,
very productive and is the very heart
of the prairie belt that lies athwart
northeast Mississippi, running south
east from about Tupelo, like an arc
of circle, and ending about De-
mopolis, Alabama, to the southeast.
The prairie belt was the bottom of
the sea in prehistoric days, and by
eruptive volcanic force, millions of
years ago, was lifted. and this inland
sea was drained off through the
Tombigbee River, whose channel al
most precisely divides the black prai-
RE from the sandy loan lands on the
East. The remains of sea animals,
everywhere present on the hillsides
below the surface of the soil, give
unmistakable evidence of the pres
ence of sea life. The soil is of lime
formation, very fertile and mex
haustible.
After the Dancing Rabbit Treaty
of 1880, the rich planters of Vir-
ginia, North and South Carolina, and
Georgia and Tennessee came in great
numbers with their negro slaves to
cultivate the rich sol of the prai-
res, as well as great stretches of al
luvial land lying along the Tombig-
bee River and its tributaries. The
small farmer largely settled the east