A brief Hstory of DeSoto County
Courtesy of the DeSoto County Geneological Society

Into the Modern Age

In 1948 the first television station began broadcasting from Memphis and some DeSoto Countians, equipped with tiny screen, black and white sets and good antennas, entertained friends with television parties. Gradually the price of television sets came down, the number of stations went up and the citizenry was well and truly "hooked on the tube."

Hernando rapidly became the "Marrying Capital" of the nation as couples poured into town from everywhere to say their vows. Two women from Las Vegas rented space and opened a "Marriage Chapel" with a complete ceremony for a fee. Life Magazine sent reporters to cover the story. This ended on June 29, 1958, after the state legislature passed a blood test and three day waiting period law. Even now, 50 years later, visitors to Hernando often say, "You know, we got married here!"

DeSoto County State Senator I. W. "Jack" Hudspeth of Cockrum introduced and got passed in the state legislature in 1946, an enabling act to allow more county support of public libraries. The DeSoto County Library had about 3,000 mostly old books, $100.00 per year to buy new books, and $1,200.00 to pay two staff members. In 1946 Mrs. Amma Gray Horn, DeSoto County educator and philanthropist whose picture hangs in the Hernando Library, bequeathed her entire estate to the DeSoto County Library. The bequest gave impetus in 1950, to the formation of the First Regional Library of Mississippi, a system that has served as a model for other regional libraries since then.

DeSoto County men served in the Korean War, 1950-1953, but this "police action" did not have the impact of World War II on the county.

In 1954 DeSoto County schools reorganized into one county-wide school system with an elected County School Board. Second in size only to the Jackson, Mississippi, City School System, this progressive action put the county educational system in the forefront of Mississippi schools.

Fred Goldsmith of Memphis, purchaser of the historic Gayoso Hotel in Memphis, gave DeSoto County a group of murals depicting the travels of Hernando DeSoto in 1520. A public subscription of $1,500.00 hired Mr. S. H. Chism to hang and restore the murals. They remain today a point of interest in the courthouse.

Hundreds of farmers started dairy farms making DeSoto County a leading dairy county of Mississippi. Local farmers helped organize the Mid-South Milk Association, a marketing cooperative for their product. In June 1960, over 600 people attended the June Dairy Month Celebration when Miss Kay Gartrell was crowned DeSoto County Dairy Queen.

Many farmers, realizing the importance of diversified farming, also added fine beef cattle to their farm plans. In addition to the traditional cotton crop, they planted more soybeans and wheat.

The First Regional Library Headquarters Building in Hernando, made possible by a DeSoto County bond issue, was dedicated August 4, 1968.

In 1970 DeSoto County schools accomplished an orderly and effective integration of the public schools. By 1970 soybean acreage had overtaken cotton as the number one crop. Dairy herds gradually decreased as more and more pasture land was turned into subdivisions.

Governor Ross Barnett cut the ribbon to initiate the selling of homes in the Southaven Community in 1958. Before 1960 over 1,000 people called it home. The city was incorporated March 25, 1980.

Dover Elevator Company at Horn Lake opened in 1963. Holiday Inn bought 3,000 acres at Olive Branch in 1969 to open its Holiday Inn University, hotel, golf course complex. From that beginning has come the vast growth in that part of the county of industries of every kind.

In 1964 Interstate Highway 55 opened through Hernando and soon extended to Jackson, Mississippi, and beyond. The interstate highway system effectively linked DeSoto Countians with the rest of the country.

In the Gulf of Tonkin on July 30, 1964, North Vietnamese PT boats fired on American destroyers cruising there, starting United States involvement in the Vietnamese War. President Johnson was given authority by the United States Congress to "prevent further aggression." Again a war was never declared, but the action lasted until November 1, 1968. Local citizens served in the effort.

New one-family homes numbered over 1,000 per year in the early 1970s, a population growth that gets greater each year.

The untimely death of Elvis Aaron Presley shocked the county. He had spent time riding horses at his ranch on Goodman Road and made friends as he toured over the county on his motorcycle. Friends remembered the pony he gave their little girl, the day he stopped at their farm to buy some ducks from their yard, or shopping at the sporting goods store when he came in to make a purchase.

The first cellular phone call in 1983, foreshadowed a time when the cellular phone accompanied almost everyone as they drove, worked or shopped.

In August 1988, the people of the county realized a dream when Baptist DeSoto Hospital invited everyone to an open house and began receiving patients.

In 1988, 71 percent of the participating voters of deSoto County approved a sweeping change in conducting of county business when they voted in the County Unit System to replace the old Beat System.

DeSoto Countians' friend, lawyer, and State Representative John Grisham published his first novel, A Time To Kill, in 1989. He signed books at local libraries and sold a few thousand copies. His second effort, The Firm, hit the best seller list and made those early copies of A Time To Kill much sought after.

The Federal census of 1990 reported the county population at 67,910. In 1992 the estimate was 74,020, making DeSoto County the fastest growing county in the state of Mississippi and ranking it sixth in population.

The Federal government approved building an interchange on Interstate 55 at Church Road. This culminated years of planning and applying for the project January 1995, marked the expected completion date. It took a little longer.

On January 1,1994, the County Board of Supervisors signed a six year, county-wide, curb side garbage pickup contract with a fee of $5.00 per month per household.

The Mississippi State Auditor, in 1994, praised DeSoto County as the only county in the state to fully comply with the County Unit System under a County Administrator. He congratulated the team- work between the Board of Supervisors, the Administrator, the Road Manager and the road crews.

In February 1994 at the end of a mild winter, DeSoto County, and indeed all of northwestern Mississippi, was blasted with an ice storm that downed power lines and paralyzed the area for two weeks or more.

Plans to build a DeSoto County Civic Center prompted the distribution of survey forms asking for citizen opinion.

The arson fire that destroyed the historic Hernando High School building on August 18, 1994, dismayed citizens county-wide. The burned out shell was razed and a new County Department of Education Building replaced it by 1998.

By 1999 the county was making the transition from its traditional agricultural base to an urban economy. Only three dairies remained in the county. The small family farmer had all but gone. Most who stay in farming have large acreage operations. Subdivisions now grow in cotton fields and shopping areas occupy cow pastures.

Entering the new millennium DeSoto County looked forward to the opening of its new civic center, the new DeSoto County Central School Campus on Getwell Road, and a DeSoto County Historical Museum. Citizens routinely use their home computers to solve problems and tend to business. Looking back to the beginning, people wonder if the next century holds as many changes as the last one. The answer is a resounding, "Yes!"