A brief Hstory of DeSoto County
Courtesy of the DeSoto County Geneological Society
Reconstruction Days 1866-1875
The industrial North became rich during the war years by manufacturing war goods, but the South, which had been ruined by fire and the sword, had a bitter story. The end of the war found DeSoto County bankrupt, its fields desolate of crops and its economic life destroyed. On December 12, 1867, a county meeting was called to discuss the prevention of famine during the months ahead.
An influx of new citizens arrived in DeSoto County from the north and from foreign countries by 1870. At the same time, members of many county families moved west to Arkansas, Texas and California.
Politically, following the surrender, DeSoto County, like all of Mississippi, was under military rule. Officials of the county were appointed by Adelbert Ames, the military governor. With the out- standing leadership of local citizens DeSoto County was able to avoid the bloody riots and the extravagant administrations other area experienced.
"Carpetbaggers" (newcomers arriving from the North with their possessions in satchels of carpet material) and "Scalawags" (local citizens who expediently cooperated with them) were appointed as county officials. DeSoto County was fortunate that many of these appointees were good citizens who attended faithfully to the welfare of the county.
At this time, the Board of Police was abolished and the Board of Supervisors established. After Tate County was formed the Beat or Supervisor District lines were redrawn in DeSoto County.
On February 25, 1870, Mississippi was readmitted to the Union. In 1876, Adelbert Ames was replaced as governor by Democratic Governor John M. Stone. The struggles of Reconstruction continued. Hotly contested elections followed in the next few years, but at least they were elections.
The Constitution of 1869 established the Mississippi Public School System. Most Mississippians opposed public schools because times were so hard and there was little money to pay school taxes. DeSoto County established its first free public schools in 1871.
Newspapers were practically nonexistent during the war. In May 1866, W. S. Slade published The People’s Press, the first DeSoto County paper after the hostilities ended. In the fall of 1868 he wrote in The People’s Press, "Notwithstanding the burning by Yankee soldiers and their stealings combined-notwithstanding the many failures of heretofore rich farmers who have been declared bankrupts- we can boast of more stores and a larger stock of goods than ever."
Two trains a day ran in and out of Memphis. County roads, in bad repair, trailed through the area. Major bridges had been destroyed during the war and smaller ones had fallen in making travel in the county hazardous.
DeSoto County still had a burned out shell for a courthouse. Court was held in any space available and witnesses had to wait outside in all weather for their turns in court. Concern about the lack of a courthouse led to bids from other communities to build a courthouse in that community if it could become the county seat.
The agitation was strongest from that part of the county that lay south of the Coldwater River. Petitions to probate court asked that the county be divided. In 1873, the state legislature divided the county and formed Tate County south of the Coldwater River. In 1870 the county's population stood just over 32,000 people. The division of the county caused the loss of about 10,000 as reflected on the 1880 census.
"Four Ways" was an inn and stage coach stop at Pleasant Hill Road and Old Highway 51 at Nesbit, Mississippi. In 1845 Dr. A.D. McNeese bought the property and built a log cabin on the hill above a spring. Sometime around 1861, he built the three story inn just East of the cabin. In 1862 he sold it to Dr. Nathaniel Winningham.
Nails for building the inn were hand forged. They were square with blunt ends. Concrete for the foundation of the cabin and inn, as well as fence posts, feed and water troughs was hand made by the laborers.
The mahogany stair case came from France in sections. It was shipped to New Orleans, then sent up the Mississippi on river boats, and on to Nesbit in wagons. It was put together with pegs. Marshall County Courthouse in Holly Springs has a double staircase of the same materials and design.
During the Civil War years, the inn was used as a military conference site by Jefferson Davis. As president of the Confederacy he met there with General Nathan Bedford Forrest and other officers.
Lex and Fronie Wooten bought "Four Ways" in 1946 and sold it in the early 1960s. The house was torn down in 1969.
On June 1, 1871, contractors Seebring and Lee had 22 workers on the square removing the ruins of the old courthouse with rebuilding to start immediately. DeSoto County had solved its most pressing problem with the courthouse completion in 1872.
The introduction of barbed wire to fence in livestock and the passing of state laws to make it illegal to allow livestock to run at large stirred the county. For many weeks farmers hotly debated the issue in "Letters to the Editor" in the county newspaper. The wire was expensive and many feared it would injure their stock.
