Byhalia, Mississippi
Encyclopedia
Byhalia is a town in Marshall County
, Mississippi
, United States
. The population was 706 as of the 2000 census.
, the town has a total area of 2.9 square miles (7.5 km²), all of it land.
to Oklahoma
.
Byhalia was named for a creek spelled Bihalee. The Chickasaw word was Dai-yi-il-ah meaning “White Oak.” The U.S. Postal Service accepted the name Byhalia in 1846.
Byhalia's location had several advantages for an early settlement, lying near the crossroad site where the Pigeon Roost Road ran from Memphis
to Oxford
and Pontotoc
. Much land in Georgia, Virginia
, and North
and South Carolina
had been depleted from continuous cotton
planting and lack of crop rotation
, making the newly opened territory in North Mississippi an inviting opportunity for emigrant farmers.
Entering the 1850s, Byhalia seemed well on the way to becoming a key trade center in North Mississippi. Stagecoach
service from Memphis
to Oxford
came through Byhalia in the late 1840s. Mail, light freight, and passengers traveled to and through Byhalia with this fast and reasonably comfortable means of transportation. As more settlers arrived, local commerce
flourished and schools were established.
Holly Springs
obtained a railroad in 1852, making the stage line obsolete. Since Byhalia was only a stop on the stage route, and the stage line could not effectively compete against the railroad from Memphis to Holly Springs or Oxford, service was suspended in 1856. Also devastating to Byhalia’s growth was the outbreak of the Civil War. More than 250 men from the area immediately surrounding Byhalia served in the Confederate Army.
After the war, Byhalia struggled during the Reconstruction period. A national depression hit in 1873 which lasted for several years. A severe freeze in the winter of 1873 blocked traffic on the Mississippi River and compounded the hardships of the depression.
Yellow fever
broke out throughout northern Mississippi in 1878. However, Byhalia appears to have escaped the wrath of the fever, as few tombstones in the immediate area reflect deaths in the summer of 1878.
The town of Byhalia grew slowly due to the proximity of Holly Springs and lack of a railroad. However in 1885, completion of the railroad from Memphis joined the existing railroad at Holly Springs and spurred new growth. Most existing downtown buildings date from the period 1884 to 1920. Time, fire, and the Civil War destroyed many of the early homes in Byhalia and a major fire around 1970 destroyed much of the northern section of downtown near Highway 178. New buildings have been built in that area since the fire.
Byhalia gradually recovered from the effects of the Civil War and Reconstruction; by the mid-1880s railroad traffic had spurred the Byhalian economy. Irish laborers and convicts built the railroad. In March 1925, electricity came to Byhalia.
Around 1949, Dr. Leonard Wright established a sanatorium
in Byhalia. Financially well-to-do patients from Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Mississippi frequented the successful sanatorium. Most notably, William Faulkner
died at the Wright Sanatorium in 1962.
Like many American places, Byhalia has a complicated history of race relations. The Civil War and abortive Reconstruction engendered bitterness among many whites and did little to turn black residents into community stakeholders. The mutual resentment and mistrust boiled over in 1974, when a black 21 year old named Butler Young Jr. was shot and killed by a police officer after escaping from a squad car. Young had been arrested on suspicion of committing a hit-and-run
. The shooting and subsequent handling of the case by the sheriff
and grand jury
resulted in one of the longest boycotts in Mississippi history. The black boycott of white businesses received national media coverage. The shooting and boycott hardened racial attitudes on both sides. White business owners complained that they were being punished for grievances that they had not caused, while many black community members claimed that the shooting was part of a broader marginalization of blacks.
As of the census
of 2000, there were 706 people, 275 households, and 188 families residing in the town. The population density
was 246.8 people per square mile (95.3/km²). There were 306 housing units at an average density of 107.0 per square mile (41.3/km²). The racial makeup of the town was 60.76% White, 35.69% African American, 0.14% Native American, 3.12% from other races
, and 0.28% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 3.12% of the population.
There were 275 households out of which 30.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 42.5% were married couples
living together, 22.2% had a female householder with no husband present, and 31.6% were non-families. 27.6% of all households were made up of individuals and 10.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.57 and the average family size was 3.13.
In the town the population was spread out with 26.5% under the age of 18, 10.8% from 18 to 24, 25.8% from 25 to 44, 22.2% from 45 to 64, and 14.7% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females there were 84.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 79.0 males.
The median income for a household in the town was $26,618, and the median income for a family was $35,313. Males had a median income of $34,375 versus $19,219 for females. The per capita income
for the town was $15,156. About 25.0% of families and 26.4% of the population were below the poverty line, including 31.2% of those under age 18 and 39.2% of those age 65 or over.
, one of the districts being supported by the Mississippi Teacher Corps.
Marshall County, Mississippi
-Demographics:At the 2000 census, there were 34,993 people, 12,163 households and 9,110 families residing in the county. The population density was 50 per square mile . There were 13,252 housing units at an average density of 19 per square mile...
, Mississippi
Mississippi
Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. The population was 706 as of the 2000 census.
Geography
According to the United States Census BureauUnited States Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau is the government agency that is responsible for the United States Census. It also gathers other national demographic and economic data...
, the town has a total area of 2.9 square miles (7.5 km²), all of it land.
History
The town of Byhalia was founded in 1838 when C.W. Rains and Wash Poe purchased land at the intersection of Pigeon Roost Road (now Church Street) and the Collierville-Chulahoma Road (now Highway 309). Pigeon Roost Road was originally the Chickasaw Trail, the route followed by Hernando DeSoto in 1541. Pigeon Roost Road had been improved in 1835 to accommodate the removal of the Chickasaw NationChickasaw Nation
The Chickasaw Nation is a federally recognized Native American nation, located in Oklahoma. They are one of the members of the Five Civilized Tribes. The Five Civilized Tribes were differentiated from other Indian reservations in that they had semi-autonomous constitutional governments and...
to Oklahoma
Oklahoma
Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...
.
Byhalia was named for a creek spelled Bihalee. The Chickasaw word was Dai-yi-il-ah meaning “White Oak.” The U.S. Postal Service accepted the name Byhalia in 1846.
Byhalia's location had several advantages for an early settlement, lying near the crossroad site where the Pigeon Roost Road ran from Memphis
Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers....
to Oxford
Oxford, Mississippi
Oxford is a city in, and the county seat of, Lafayette County, Mississippi, United States. Founded in 1835, it was named after the British university city of Oxford in hopes of having the state university located there, which it did successfully attract....
and Pontotoc
Pontotoc, Mississippi
Pontotoc is a city in Pontotoc County, Mississippi, United States. Pontotoc is west of the much larger city of Tupelo. The population was 5,625 at the 2010 census...
. Much land in Georgia, Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
, and North
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
and South Carolina
South Carolina
South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...
had been depleted from continuous cotton
Cotton
Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective capsule, around the seeds of cotton plants of the genus Gossypium. The fiber is almost pure cellulose. The botanical purpose of cotton fiber is to aid in seed dispersal....
planting and lack of crop rotation
Crop rotation
Crop rotation is the practice of growing a series of dissimilar types of crops in the same area in sequential seasons.Crop rotation confers various benefits to the soil. A traditional element of crop rotation is the replenishment of nitrogen through the use of green manure in sequence with cereals...
, making the newly opened territory in North Mississippi an inviting opportunity for emigrant farmers.
Entering the 1850s, Byhalia seemed well on the way to becoming a key trade center in North Mississippi. Stagecoach
Stagecoach
A stagecoach is a type of covered wagon for passengers and goods, strongly sprung and drawn by four horses, usually four-in-hand. Widely used before the introduction of railway transport, it made regular trips between stages or stations, which were places of rest provided for stagecoach travelers...
service from Memphis
Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers....
to Oxford
Oxford, Mississippi
Oxford is a city in, and the county seat of, Lafayette County, Mississippi, United States. Founded in 1835, it was named after the British university city of Oxford in hopes of having the state university located there, which it did successfully attract....
came through Byhalia in the late 1840s. Mail, light freight, and passengers traveled to and through Byhalia with this fast and reasonably comfortable means of transportation. As more settlers arrived, local commerce
Commerce
While business refers to the value-creating activities of an organization for profit, commerce means the whole system of an economy that constitutes an environment for business. The system includes legal, economic, political, social, cultural, and technological systems that are in operation in any...
flourished and schools were established.
Holly Springs
Holly Springs, Mississippi
Holly Springs is a city in Marshall County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 7,957 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Marshall County. A short drive from Memphis, Tennessee, Holly Springs is the site of a number of well-preserved antebellum homes and other structures and...
obtained a railroad in 1852, making the stage line obsolete. Since Byhalia was only a stop on the stage route, and the stage line could not effectively compete against the railroad from Memphis to Holly Springs or Oxford, service was suspended in 1856. Also devastating to Byhalia’s growth was the outbreak of the Civil War. More than 250 men from the area immediately surrounding Byhalia served in the Confederate Army.
After the war, Byhalia struggled during the Reconstruction period. A national depression hit in 1873 which lasted for several years. A severe freeze in the winter of 1873 blocked traffic on the Mississippi River and compounded the hardships of the depression.
Yellow fever
Yellow fever
Yellow fever is an acute viral hemorrhagic disease. The virus is a 40 to 50 nm enveloped RNA virus with positive sense of the Flaviviridae family....
broke out throughout northern Mississippi in 1878. However, Byhalia appears to have escaped the wrath of the fever, as few tombstones in the immediate area reflect deaths in the summer of 1878.
The town of Byhalia grew slowly due to the proximity of Holly Springs and lack of a railroad. However in 1885, completion of the railroad from Memphis joined the existing railroad at Holly Springs and spurred new growth. Most existing downtown buildings date from the period 1884 to 1920. Time, fire, and the Civil War destroyed many of the early homes in Byhalia and a major fire around 1970 destroyed much of the northern section of downtown near Highway 178. New buildings have been built in that area since the fire.
Byhalia gradually recovered from the effects of the Civil War and Reconstruction; by the mid-1880s railroad traffic had spurred the Byhalian economy. Irish laborers and convicts built the railroad. In March 1925, electricity came to Byhalia.
Around 1949, Dr. Leonard Wright established a sanatorium
Sanatorium
A sanatorium is a medical facility for long-term illness, most typically associated with treatment of tuberculosis before antibiotics...
in Byhalia. Financially well-to-do patients from Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Mississippi frequented the successful sanatorium. Most notably, William Faulkner
William Faulkner
William Cuthbert Faulkner was an American writer from Oxford, Mississippi. Faulkner worked in a variety of media; he wrote novels, short stories, a play, poetry, essays and screenplays during his career...
died at the Wright Sanatorium in 1962.
Like many American places, Byhalia has a complicated history of race relations. The Civil War and abortive Reconstruction engendered bitterness among many whites and did little to turn black residents into community stakeholders. The mutual resentment and mistrust boiled over in 1974, when a black 21 year old named Butler Young Jr. was shot and killed by a police officer after escaping from a squad car. Young had been arrested on suspicion of committing a hit-and-run
Hit and run (vehicular)
Hit-and-run is the act of causing a traffic accident , and failing to stop and identify oneself afterwards...
. The shooting and subsequent handling of the case by the sheriff
Sheriff
A sheriff is in principle a legal official with responsibility for a county. In practice, the specific combination of legal, political, and ceremonial duties of a sheriff varies greatly from country to country....
and grand jury
Grand jury
A grand jury is a type of jury that determines whether a criminal indictment will issue. Currently, only the United States retains grand juries, although some other common law jurisdictions formerly employed them, and most other jurisdictions employ some other type of preliminary hearing...
resulted in one of the longest boycotts in Mississippi history. The black boycott of white businesses received national media coverage. The shooting and boycott hardened racial attitudes on both sides. White business owners complained that they were being punished for grievances that they had not caused, while many black community members claimed that the shooting was part of a broader marginalization of blacks.
Demographics
The following demographic information is based on 2000 Census information; however, the population of Byhalia has significantly increased in recent years due to immigration and a 2005 annexation of adjacent area. The population in 2007 was estimated at over 2,000.As of the census
Census
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...
of 2000, there were 706 people, 275 households, and 188 families residing in the town. The population density
Population density
Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...
was 246.8 people per square mile (95.3/km²). There were 306 housing units at an average density of 107.0 per square mile (41.3/km²). The racial makeup of the town was 60.76% White, 35.69% African American, 0.14% Native American, 3.12% from other races
Race (United States Census)
Race and ethnicity in the United States Census, as defined by the Federal Office of Management and Budget and the United States Census Bureau, are self-identification data items in which residents choose the race or races with which they most closely identify, and indicate whether or not they are...
, and 0.28% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 3.12% of the population.
There were 275 households out of which 30.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 42.5% were married couples
Marriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...
living together, 22.2% had a female householder with no husband present, and 31.6% were non-families. 27.6% of all households were made up of individuals and 10.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.57 and the average family size was 3.13.
In the town the population was spread out with 26.5% under the age of 18, 10.8% from 18 to 24, 25.8% from 25 to 44, 22.2% from 45 to 64, and 14.7% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females there were 84.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 79.0 males.
The median income for a household in the town was $26,618, and the median income for a family was $35,313. Males had a median income of $34,375 versus $19,219 for females. The per capita income
Per capita income
Per capita income or income per person is a measure of mean income within an economic aggregate, such as a country or city. It is calculated by taking a measure of all sources of income in the aggregate and dividing it by the total population...
for the town was $15,156. About 25.0% of families and 26.4% of the population were below the poverty line, including 31.2% of those under age 18 and 39.2% of those age 65 or over.
Education
The Town of Byhalia is served by the Marshall County School DistrictMarshall County School District
The Marshall County School District is a public school district based in Marshall County, Mississippi .The district serves the towns of Byhalia and Potts Camp as well as most rural areas in Marshall County.-Schools:*Byhalia High School...
, one of the districts being supported by the Mississippi Teacher Corps.
Notable people and events
- The original field recording of "Sea Lion WomanSea Lion Woman"Sea Lion Woman" is a traditional American folk song originally used as a children's playground song....
", sung by Katherine and Christine Shipp, was recorded in Byhalia by Herbert Halpert on May 13, 1939. - Novelist and Nobel laureateNobel Prize in LiteratureSince 1901, the Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded annually to an author from any country who has, in the words from the will of Alfred Nobel, produced "in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction"...
William FaulknerWilliam FaulknerWilliam Cuthbert Faulkner was an American writer from Oxford, Mississippi. Faulkner worked in a variety of media; he wrote novels, short stories, a play, poetry, essays and screenplays during his career...
died of a heart attack at Wright's Sanitorium in Byhalia in 1962 at the age of 64. - The soul singer Jan BradleyJan BradleyJan Bradley is an American soul singer.Bradley grew up in Robbins, Illinois. She was noticed by manager Don Talty at a high school talent show. After graduating, she auditioned for Curtis Mayfield, and soon recorded the Mayfield-penned "We Girls", which became a hit regionally in the Midwest...
was born in Byhalia in 1943.