Tutwiler—Greenwood—Lexington—Pickens. US 49E, State 12.
Tutwiler to Pickens, 98.2 m.
Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R.R. parallels route to Tchula.
Paved highway to Greenwood; remainder under construction.
Accommodations in towns.
US 49E, branching southward from US 49W at Tutwiler, follows the eastern rim of the Delta to Tchula. At Tchula the route swings eastward to climb from the Delta into one of the oldest settled sections of the Central Hills and to end at Pickens. The Delta is flat and black, with numerous lakes and bayous; it is a cotton land divided into extensive plantations and cultivated by the labor of Negro tenants. The hill country is the stronghold of the small farm owner and of numerous though small sawmill interests. Here diversification has made headway in its fight against King Cotton, with dairying and cover crops becoming a part of every farm.
At TUTWILER, 0 m. (157 alt., 873 pop.) (see Tour 7, Sec. a), is the junction with US 49 W (see Tour 7, Sec. a).
SUMNER, 5 m. (618 pop.), is divided by CASSIDY BAYOU. The bayou, the longest in the State, has its ghost. At intervals for 25 years the ghost has appeared at the home of Boone Jenkins, a farmer living one mile N. of Sumner. Each appearance is accompanied by weird voices and the shriek of a woman. Persons who have followed the voice say that it leads to the bayou and, in some instances, to the Indian mounds in the vicinity; the mystery of the Cassidy ghost has never been solved.
WEBB, 7 m. (153 alt., 531 pop.), is the twin of Sumner, the interests of the two towns being almost inseparable. On the old highway between the two are a cotton mill and cemetery shared by both.
Left from Webb on a graveled road to TALLAHA SPRINGS, 3 m. (overnight accommodations, boating, fishing, hiking).
At SWAN LAKE, 10.3 m. (147 alt., 100 pop.), a low, white frame plantation house (R) is typical of the modern Mississippi planter home.
Left from Swan Lake on a dirt road to the STATON HOUSE, 2 m., a typical ante-bellum plantation home, built with slave labor in the latter part of the 1820’s by Eli Staton and given to his eldest son, James Harvey Staton. It is of the story-and-a-half post-Colonial type, with wide white clapboarded walls, two chimneys at each end, and a small square portico. The house faces a levee built before 1830; in the Negro quarters near the house is the first Staton home, a squat log structure.
South of Swan Lake there are 10 Negro cabins to every white cabin, and Negro schools, churches, and cemeteries predominate. Scantily clad children play in the cabin yards, men and women fish on the banks of bayous and lakes and in late summer pick the cotton.
Negroes make almost a ritual of the cotton picking. They stoop before the plants, pull the white seedy cotton from the bolls, and place it in long white sacks, which they trail behind them. Each movement is graceful and rhythmic, and is often performed to the accompaniment of song. These cotton-picking songs are rarely sung in chorus, but rather as a number of harmonizing solos. The tune varies from a minor note of despair to a triumphant major:
“Old Massa say, ‘Pick Dat Cotton! (oratorical tone)
Can’t pick cotton, Massa (whining tone)
Cotton seed am rotten! Ha! Ha! Ha!”
MINTER CITY, 23.8 m. (350 pop.), was settled when Delta land was selling for 25¢ an acre. The J. A. TOWNES HOME, the oldest in the county, on the western bank of Tallahatchie River, is a log house built near the ground with a breezy open hall.
At 35 m. is the junction with a graveled road.
Left on this road to SHELLMOUND, 0.5 m. (75 pop.), the site of a battle between the Chakchiuma and allied Choctaw and Chickasaw. Legend says the battle gave the Yazoo (Ind., river of death) River its name.
At 39.2 m. is the junction with US 82 (see Tour 6).
US 49E turns R. on Grand Blvd. which crosses the river and becomes Fulton St.
GREENWOOD, 43 m. (143 alt., 11,123 pop.) (see GREENWOOD).
Points of Interest. Cotton gins and compresses, Terry collection of old relics, and others.
Right from Greenwood on Grand Blvd., here old US 82, to the WRECK OF THE STAR OF THE WEST, 2.4 m., visible in Tallahatchie River when the water is low. The ship was scuttled at Fort Pemberton during the War between the States to block the channel and prevent passage of Federals in their effort to get to the north side of Vicksburg. It was captured at Sabine Pass by General Van Dorn without a shot being fired; the officers and crew were ashore on a frolic. General Van Dorn, singularly enough, was in charge of a cavalry detachment at the time. On the same road is the SITE OF FORT PEMBERTON, 3.2 m., marked by a cannon. This fort was thrown across a narrow neck of land separating the Yazoo and Tallahatchie Rivers and delayed considerably the fall of Vicksburg. Confederate soldiers, not knowing the war was over, manned the fort for two months after peace was signed.
The route continues on Fulton St.; R. on Henry St.; L. on Mississippi Ave. (US 49E).
At 50.8 m. (R) is ARCHERLEADER PLANTATION (private), a two-story white frame house with one of the best collections of fine old furnishings in the State; these were brought from Anchuka, the ancestral home of the Archer family (see Tour 3, Sec. b). This plantation has some of the better type tenant cabins of the Delta. Three and four rooms large, they are painted white with green trim.
Between Archerleader and Tchula the bluff hills are visible (L), contrasting sharply with the low, wide Delta horizon.
TCHULA, 67.8 m. (130 alt., 907 pop.), is divided by Tchula Lake. The lake at one time was navigable, being known as Little River, and was the shipping point for an abundance of cotton. Though no longer used for river traffic, the lake now gives the town commercial importance in that it abounds in catfish. Thousands of pounds of fish are caught annually and marketed in neighboring towns or shipped to distant markets. Boats, with Negroes to paddle them, are available for 25¢ an hour, and in the vicinity are numerous camping sites equipped with cabins.
At Tchula is the junction with State 12. The route continues southeastward on State 12, climbing from the lakes and bayous of the Delta into the bluff hills that mark the central part of the State.
LEXINGTON, 80.8 m. (209 alt., 2,590 pop.), the seat of Holmes Co., is one of the older towns of the Central Hills. Established as a trading post immediately after the Treaty of Doak’s Stand, Lexington was incorporated on Feb. 25, 1836, and in 1906 was raised to the status of a city. Though a trading center for the surrounding farm country, shipping 12,000 bales of cotton and 300,000 pounds of butter annually, Lexington is largely dependent on the lumber and the sand and gravel industries.
Left from Lexington on the old road to Emory to the J. H. ROGERS HOME, 8 m. (open by permission), a large rambling two-story house built by Col. J. H. Rogers in 1817. The construction of the house, built of hand-hewn lumber, was planned and supervised by Kirl Dixon, a Negro slave. Divided by a wide hall, open at each end, the house contains five bedrooms, a dining room, and a kitchen. The house, like the farm land surrounding it, has been in the possession of the Rogers family since its erection. Strangely, neither land nor house has ever been mortgaged.
The route between Lexington and Pickens passes through low-rolling hill lands, where small sawmilling interests supplement the incomes from small diversified farms of cotton and corn, and dairying.
At 96.6 m. is the junction with US 51 (see Tour 5, Sec. a), 1.6 miles N. of Pickens (see Tour 5, Sec. a).