RICHMOND-
Between the old Lamont Posey home and a house trailer on County Road 814
is a thicket of waist-high weeds and cedar and oak trees. The gravel
driveway splitting the two homes leads into a grassy pathway that has been
cut through the woods.
As he worked his way through the high grass along
the path, Tulane Posey - Lamont's nephew - began to visualize buildings
that once stood next to the road about 150 years ago.
"The way I figured, the Pettigrew business was right
there, the Raymond business was there, the Walker business was right about
there," said Posey, who grew up about a mile away. "And then, the
saloon and the dance hall were over here on this side."
Turning to a visitor, Posey shook his head in amazement.
"Never in the world would you realize that all this
existed," he said. "You would've never thought walking along here
that this was at one time a booming, thriving town."
The pathway was once Main Street in a town many
refer to as Old Richmond. Long before there was a Richmond community
in easter Lee County, or even a Lee County, there was Old Richmond.
Old Richmond was a boom-town complete with buisnesses,
schools, churches, even a fairground - until it went bust. When the
railroads bypassed Richmond, the town lost business after business until
everything was gone by the 1890's.
Even though the old town is gone, the memory of
it lives on today. Posey and other descendants of early Richmond
settlers, many of whom still live in the community, are keeping the town
history alive through research and family information passed down from
one generation to the next.
Early
history
Before Richmond was settled in the late 1830's,
the land in Northeast Mississippi belonged to the Chickasaw Indians.
But through treaties like the Treaty of Pontotoc Creek in 1834, the Chickasaws
gave up their land and left the state.
According to information about the history of Old
Richmond, the treaties opened the way for white settlers to move into the
new land. The first reported settler in Old Richmond was Arch Thomason,
who arrived in 1836.
Old Richmond in its early years was a part of Itawamba
County. The town grew quickly, becoming a trade center and a stopping
point for travelers by wagon and stagecoach.
Old Richmond's Main Street started on what is now
Road 814 in front of Lamont Posey's home and curved to the northeast.
Posey said there were at least 12 stores in Old Richmond owned by merchants
named Williams, Murphy, Threlkeld, Crane, Thomas, Stovall, Randolph, Evans,
Pettigrew, Raymond, Walker, Roberts, and Westmoreland.
"This was the center of activity," said Posey, a
Social Security judge who two years ago moved from Jackson back home to
Richmond. "It had to be one of the busiest towns around."
On the south end of Main Street were a hotel, the
Webb shop and woodworking business, the Baptist church (formed in 1845),
a girls academy and a Masonic lodge. On the north end, there were
a boys academy as well as a saloon and dance hall to entertain visitors.
Nearby there were a gin, grist mill and store operated by the Shumpert
family.
To the northeast were the Owen Williams and Frank
Threlkeld homes. Also, there were slave quarters nearby for those
who worked for the farmers.
Old Richmond was also known for its fairgrounds
about a mile to the northeast. The fairgrounds was a flat piece of
land where residents and visitors met for events.
"The fairgrounds was where they had fairs, horse
races, community functions and stuff like that," Posey said. "It
was a place where everybody would gather."
Today, the fairgrounds area is covered by a neighborhood,
a store and two churches at the intersection of county roads 800, 810,
814 and State Highway 371. Richmond Baptist Church, which moved to
its present location on the corner of roads 814 and 800, was often called
Fairgrounds Church by area folks.
Railroads
bring demise
Old Richmond survived the Civil War, and in 1866
it became part of the newly-established Lee County. Parts of Pontotoc
and Itawamba counties were taken to form the new county, which chose Saltillo
as its county seat.
But even with the business it had, Old Richmond
began to suffer when the railroads went in another direction. At
first, the Mobile and Ohio was built in 1858 through Verona and another
fast-growing town, Tupelo. Later, it was the Frisco Railroad that
laid its tracks through Nettleton and Tupelo.
"Naturally, towns sprung up along the railroad because
of the accessibility of transportation," Posey said. "That's how towns
like Verona, Tupelo and Saltillo started."
Posey said he thinks Richmond's location hurt the
town's chances of getting a railroad.
"Richmond is kind of hilly," he said. "The
railroads tried to keep on level land as best as they could. They
had to make some cuts, but they didn't have bulldozers like that back then.
"You think about the Frisco Railroad from Nettleton
to Tupelo. There isn't a hill on it. It follows a bottom all
the way up. I guess that could have been one reason, because the
old steam engines couldn't go up and down hills."
Seeing a better opportunity for business in other
towns, Richmond's shops, schools and other businesses shut down and moved
to other towns. The last storekeeper to leave was Roman Thomas, who
moved to Plantersville in 1888. It marked the end of Old Richmond
as a thriving town.
However, the Richmond influence didn't stop there.
Posey said some of the people who left Richmond found success elsewhere.
"All these people in Tupelo, particularly the older
families like the Threlkelds, Thomases and Claytons, their roots go back
to Richmond," he said. "Then you had people like John Rankin, the
congressman. He came from this area; he rode a horse from here to
Nettleton to get his education."
People remember town
The only physical reminder of Old Richmond is a
torn down building about a half-mile to the east. It is the remains
of the Owen Williams home, which was dismantled from and moved to its location.
Even after the town died, the families who lived
there continued to call Richmond a community. It opened the Fairgrounds
School for boys and girls across the road from Richmond Baptist, but it
later closed.
Despite the hard times, the farming community remains
strong today. Richmond has always been home for generations of families.
"We have some families with four generations living
next to each other," said Brenda Shumpert, whose family is among those
who remained in Richmond. "You have parents, children, grandchildren
and great-grandchildren nearby.
"That is what Richmond is all about. It's
too wonderful of a place to move away from."
The community is proud of its history, and it may
receive some state recognition. Posey said the Old Richmond site
may soon be recognized with a marker from the Mississippi Historical Society.
"They have approved it. All it needs now is
funding," Posey said, adding that a marker would cost nearly $1,300.
Members of the community are considering ways to raise the money.
Posey said an ideal spot for the marker would be
alongside Road 814, at the corner of the Lamont Posey driveway that was
once the south end of Main Street. That way, he said, a passerby
can see the sign of what was once a booming town.
As he thought about Old Richmond's fate, Posey couldn't
help but wonder what the town would have been like had the railroads decided
to come through there instead of Tupelo.
"Certainly, if they (railroads) had crossed here
like at Tupelo, Old Richmond would have been big like Tupelo or even bigger
because it had an earlier start," he said. "There's no telling what it
would have been like. It's just whatever you want to visualize."
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Some of the information for this story came from the report, "The History
of Old Richmond," by Bob Shumpert.
(NOTE - The money for the marker has never been raised, as of August 2000.)