The “genesis” of Marshall County; chapter 3


Thursday, July 12, 2007
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The “genesis” of Marshall County; chapter 3

By Tom Stewart

Minute Book 1

The next chapter of the first Minute book was about the results of the first election where the first officers of the county were chosen. The third entry is as follows.

“It appearing to the satisfaction of the court by the certificate of L.A. Guy the returning officer for Marshall County that Livi McCroskey was duly Elected Sheriff of this County until the next general election in this State Said. McCroskey appeared in open court and interred into bond as the law directs with Bird Hill John A McCarroll Claiborne Kyle and Alexander T Carruthers payable to Charles Lynch Acting Governor of the State of Mississippi in the Pinal(?) sum of four thousand dollars and there upon said Livi McCroskey Bird Hill John McCarroll Claiborne Kile and A.T. Carruthers in open court acknowledged the due execution thereof for the purposes therein contained and there upon the oath of office was administered to said Livi McCroskey Sheriff as aforesaid.”

And so, our first set of elected officials was chosen. The rest of the page states that the county would be divided into districts and uses surveyors land labels of “townships and ranges” to give the descriptions. It is interesting that the survey used in the Chickasaw Succession is the same one used today in land descriptions. It is also ironic that sometimes when someone is trying to find an exact location in Tennessee, they will cross the state line to pick up a point and use it for that purpose.

Another interesting (and difficult) thing about reading this book is the strange way they wrote in that time. They used no punctuation except a period so names were just strung out. But, the strangest thing was the spelling. If a word had a double “s”, when they wrote it they would substitute a “p” for the first “s” and therefore we would read, “Mipsipsippi” and “lepsons” etc.... WHEW!

Next, the board would meet to decide where to make the county seat. (For those who assumed that Holly Springs was the only choice) ....

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