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Welcome to Genealogy Trails
Volunteers working to put free historical data online.
My name is Marcie, and as your Mississippi County host, I try to post as much data online as possible in order to make it freely available to all. We gratefully accept
contributions of raw data such as census information, marriage/birth/death records, obituaries, county histories, biographies,
old newspaper items - anything that would help someone build their family tree!!
Feel free to email me with your contributions - every little bit helps.
I regret that I am unable to do personal research
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Mississippi County was once a part of Arkansas County, then Phillips County and next Crittenden County, from which
it was separated
by the Territorial Legislature November 1, 1833, and named Mississippi County from the great river
that is her eastern boundary line.
The original boundary extended to St. Francis river, and included 1,000 square
miles. The first County seat, located opposite the first
Chickasaw Bluffs, was called Cornwall.
Cornwall was on the site of an old Spanish encampment and has long
since disappeared, and Osceola was adopted soon thereafter.
The first white settlers in the County of which anything is known
were Carsons
and William Kellums,
who were hunters and who lived
and hunted peaceably with the Indians. Carson’s Lake Township and Kellums Ridge were named for these men who
were there as early as 1812, after the New Madrid great earthquake of 1810. This area was originally part of the
Louisiana Territory, and later became part of the Missouri Territory on June 4, 1812.
Mississippi County was surveyed by the government in 1824-25-26,
and placed for entry at Helena, Arkansas Land Office at $1.25 per acre.
Mississippi County was formed from a part
of Crittenden County. In 1833, Osceola was selected as the County Seat, the seat of justice
having previously been
held at the home of Peter Reeves. Mississippi County had a representative at the General Assembly named John Troy.
In 1836, a committee consisting of John C. Davis, John Buckner,
Edwin Jones, Lusty McLung
and Frederick Weller (or Miller) selected the small village of Osceola to be the County Seat.
Osceola was originally a collection of log huts on the Mississippi
River. The town was named for the famous Seminole Chief who was a
visitor among the resident Indian tribes in the
area in 1832. Florida history reveals that Osceola was one of five Florida Indian Chiefs sent to Arkansas with
the idea of exchanging Arkansas land for Seminole land in Florida.
County population in 1840 was 900 whites and 510 slaves, one school
with 25 scholars, and farm products of 3042 cattle, 76 sheep, 5022 hogs,
107,615 bushels of corn, 3908 bushels
of potatoes, and 22,500
pounds of cotton.
The earliest settlers of Osceola were Edwin Jones, John P. Edrington, Thos. DeWitt,
William Bard, E. F. Lloyd, J.W. Whitsworth, J.C. Bowen, Charles Bowen, E.H. Fletcher, John W. Williams, F.R. Lanier, the McGavocks, the Craigheads, and Peter
Reeves.
The above information is taken from History of Mississippi County, Arkansas by Mabel F. Edrington,
1962.
In 1870, Blytheville became the seat of justice for
the northern section, thus making two county seats.
More county history
TRIPLES with EMMA
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