The Town of Richmond, Lee County, Mississippi Article from the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal (Wednesday, April 10, 1996, section E, pages 1 & 10)


A thriving city from the past
by Bobby Pepper

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.)