Stone County, MS History
Stone County, Mississippi is situated in South East Mississippi. Stone County is immediately north of Harrison County and is a 20-30 minute drive from the stunning Mississippi Gulf Coast. The Stone County Seat is Wiggins.
In 1820 the first settlers of Western descent began to move in to the area that became the Stone County that we know now, Mississippi was a very different place.
American Indians which were part of the Houma Indian tribe settled here first. The Houma Indian tribe was decimated by warfare with the much larger Choctaw Indian Nation around 1800 and the surviving Houma Indians eventually became a part of the Choctaw Indian Tribe.
When Mississippi became a State in 1817, a significant population of Choctaw Indians lived in what's now Stone County.
A Lt. Col. John Bond, an extremely experienced early North American explorer, was one of the original settlers in this area. Col. Bond had written a message in 1823 to his family that described this area. Col. Bond indicated that the Indians were quite friendly and were always wanting to trade their own products to Col. Bond in exchange for merchandise that Col Bond had usage of. Col. Bond inspired his Family to move to this check out the post right here area which they managed to do in 1825 where the family prospered. Col. Bond received correspondence 3 times a month from the United States Postal Service in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi.
The Native American Indians had also planted orchards of native Pecan trees in the open areas close to their villages which were located along the Red Creek in what's now Stone County.
Before the development of the timber industry in Southern Mississippi in the 1870’s, a lot of this part of Mississippi was covered by a huge Virgin Pine Forest. Many historic accounts described the ability to run a horse for many miles through these woodlands because there was so little under brush.
For countless generations, the Native American Indians had set managed fires within this primeval forest which caused the Native Wood Grass to become tender and attract the large numbers of Buffalo that lived in this area. These managed fires that removed the underbrush within the vast Virgin Pine Forest also retarded the spread of un-controllable fires that were started by lightning strikes. The need for this practice has only become recently known because of the tremendous fires in the Western United States which have waged out of control because the practice of reducing the underbrush in large tracts of forests was abandoned when the Native American Indians that once lived in these forests were re-located to Reservations much removed from their native lands.
In 1833, the United States Army came to the region now called Stone County. Native American Indians that refused to be United States citizens were relocated to Oklahoma where they suffered much suffering in what ended up being the infamous Trail of Tears’. Only 15-20 Native American Indian family members made a decision to be United States residents and remained in this area. Interestingly, the State his response of Oklahoma was designated after a lovely Indian maiden who was born into the Houma Indian tribe before this tribe become assimiliated into the much larger Choctaw tribe. Her name was Okla.
Wild life was abundant in what is known today as Stone County. 30,000 Buffalos were thought to have roamed free when Mississippi became a State in 1817. In 1817, the bear population in Mississippi was thought to be 500,000. And, in 1817 the Wolf population in Southern Mississippi alone take a look at the site here was estimated to be 25,000. The Wolf River in nearby Hancock County is an indication of the once abundant Wolf population in South Mississippi.
Stone County, Mississippi was created in 1916 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_estate out of the north part of click over here now Harrison County. Stone County was designated after former Mississippi Governor, John M. Stone. Based on the U.S. Census Bureau, the population of Stone County was estimated to be 17,786 in 2010.
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