Jones County

SUMMARY INFORMATION

·       Created: Jan 24, 1826, from parts of Covington and Wayne Counties; named for naval hero John Paul Jones.

·       County seat: Ellisville (established 1826).

·       Size: ~700 sq mi total (about 695 sq mi land, 4.9 sq mi water).

Neighboring counties: Jasper (N), Wayne (E), Perry (SE), Forrest (SW), Covington

EARLY DAYS

Founded in 1826 from portions of Covington and Wayne Counties, Jones County is located in southern Mississippi’s Piney Woods region. The Leaf River traverses Jones’s western region from north to south, while Tallahoma Creek wends its way through the county’s eastern section. In the 1820s and 1830s the lands now incorporated into Jones County were ceded to the United States by the Choctaw Indians through the Treaty of Mount Dexter, the Treaty of Doak’s Stand, and the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek. The county is named for Revolutionary War hero John Paul Jones.

As in other Piney Woods counties, economic activity in Jones did not revolve around agriculture, and the county was among the lowest in Mississippi in raising cotton, corn, and cattle during the antebellum period. The land was described as rich enough a man wouldn't starve but poor enough they wouldn't grow rich. Residents owned considerably more hogs than average, and Jones ranked eleventh in the state in rice production. In 1860 the county’s industrial workforce included only nineteen people working in flour or lumber mills.

An economic depression contributed to emigration from Jones County during its early years. Antebellum Jones remained sparsely populated, reporting only 1,309 free people and 161 slaves in its first census in 1830. By 1860 the population was growing again, and the population had climbed to 2,916 whites and 407 slaves (12 percent), the smallest number and percentage in the state.