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

The Mississippi State Constitu-
ton provides that each county in the
state shall be divided into five dis
tricts. These districts each elect
member of the County Board of
Supervisors, whose term of office is
four years. This board is the coun-
tvs fiscal agent in all local public
administrative matters; 1t holds
monthly meetings at the county
court house, raises and disburses all
county revenue, and under the con
stitution it has full and exclusive
jurisdiction over public roads, to be
exercised in such manner as the
Legislature may direct.
In 1910, the Legislature passed
what is known as the Anderson
Coed Roads Act; chapter 149, laws
Of 1910, which Act, as now amended,
empowers the various Boards Of
Supervisors IN the state to create
and organize good roads districts
with a Supervisors district as a unit.
or with two or more Supervisors
districts, or parts Of such districts,
as unit, upon the affirmative vote
Of majority OF the qualified elect
ors in the district affected, rather a
majority Of those electors voting at
an election called by the Board for
that purpose Since the passage Of
this Act, each and every Supervis-
ors' district in Monroe County has
been organized into separate good
roads district, and improved mod
ern highways have rapidly taken
the place of the old trails of ruts
and mud, which our people used to
travel in going from place to place
in the county. We have now about
$50 miles of splendid improved Mac
adam and gravelled roads in the
county, for which we have expended
nearly million dollars; and this
mileage is constantly growing, and
the roads formerly constructed i'm
proved; so that now nearly every
farmer, even in the remotest por-
lions of the county, may in his "Fliv-
yer" reach the county court house at
Aberdeen within short time. an
hour to an hour-and-a-half, and most
of them within a few minutes; and
this is during any day of the year,
although some of them are 80 miles
or more away. We have very large
county, covering an area of nearly
800 square miles, with Aberdeen, the
county seat, located nearly in the
center.
This district plan of organizing
good roads districts has greatly ia
cilitated modern highway construc
ton and improvement in Mississippi
We have, under it, made more pro
gress within the last ten years thar
we made during the entire century
preceding. 1t enables the local com
munity to create and organize it
own road district; to raise its owl
revenues, and to disburse them as i
may direct, upon roads and types o
roads and road projects best suitet
to local needs, subject only to tn
approval of the County Board o
Supervisors. 1t appeals to loca
self-government, and promotes rival
ry among the various road district
of the county, as to the best an
most durable roads to be construct
: ed. In District Four, the district i
which Aberdeen is located, we hav
already expended $345, 100000 i
constructing improved graveled road
ard concrete bridges; but this dii
: trict has practically one-half of a
: the taxable property of the county.
The Tombigbee River flows thr
: Monroe County from North to Sout
in a south-westerly direction; tn;
portion of the County east of tt
: river is black sandy soil, with
: red clay subsoil, most of which
: very productive, bringing fort
: splendid crops annually; west of IL
: river lies the prairie section of IL
: county, most Of which is blat
: prairie soil, heavily saturated wi
: lime, with limestone sub-strat
: and these lands are now largely
voted to the culture of corn, oat
: hay, such as alfalfa and 9th
= grasses, and to dairying, cattle al
: hogs-although some of our plante
: still grow cotton very profitably.
a Aberdeen is located on the We
Z bank of the Tombigbee River, al
3 these splendid MacAdam and grs
a eled highways radiste into eve
= portion Of the county, this BID