Doctoral Dissertations

Date of Award

3-1972

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Major

Geography

Major Professor

Leonard Brickman

Committee Members

Edwin Hammond, Charles Aiken, Ralph Haskins

Abstract

Towns are places of agglomerated settlement having economic interaction with a supporting hinterland. While many nucleated settlements were increasing in population, others were losing population and becoming extinct, Between 1830 and 1969, 262 towns became extinct in Mississippi, The spatial distribution of extinct towns in north Mississippi reflect changes in the cotton based economy, while those in south Mississippi reflect the exhaustion of timber resources.

Towns are defined to include a threshold population, functions, legality, and vernacular usage. A functional grouping of towns simplified investigation into the spatial and temporal interaction of towns with their hinterlands. Seventy-one per cent of the extinct towns had functioned as trade centers, and are divided into typical, river port, railroad, and county seat towns. Twenty-nine per cent of the extinct towns functioned as industrial towns, either manufacturing or sawmill towns.

Mississippi was settled largely by persons interested in the production of cotton, which was adapted to cultivation on any scale and was the mainstay of the economy, Antebellum planters marketed cotton and made purchases through factors located in cities outside Mississippi and had no interest in supporting local commercial developments, After 1865 cotton production occurred under the share-tenant and crop lien systems, The crop lien was a self-defeating credit system that held farmers captive and deprived trade towns of their commercial gain. The size of towns was also influenced by a dispersal of urban functions and by saturation of an area with towns, railroad stations, and riverboat landings. At the height of a town's prosperity, its population averaged between 150 and 300 persons.

Economic development in Mississippi proceeded with a remarkable absence of manufacturing until the lumber era of 1880 to 1920. Lumbering was responsible for peopling the sparsely inhabited Piney Woods region and was performed by persons residing in towns that grew up around company owned sawmills cutting in excess of 15,000,000 board feet annually.

The same forces that had influenced the location of new towns and had shaped their expansion and growth, gave rise to competition, differential growth, and the resultant decline of many centers after 1920. County seat towns acquired an additional element of centrality when the state highway system was designed to connect with all county seats. The external economics achieved by merchants in county-seat towns absorbed the trade of smaller places.

Several conditions contributed to the demise and extinction of towns in Mississippi. Adjustments in settlement sites after the initial surge of settlers caused some towns to disappear. The loss of key local leadership inadvertently encouraged prospective merchants to seek new sites. Farmers tended to rely on the services and goods offered in county seat town's as the range of their needs increased. After 1940 the economic base of many towns was undermined as tenancy declined and farms were consolidated. Railroads and highways interjected an element of competition between towns, and those at less favored locations declined, The decision to relocate county seats often led to the demise of towns.

Download
Files over 3MB may be slow to open. For best results, right-click and select "save as..."

Share

COinS