Meridian is the county seat

County seat

A county seat is an administrative center, or seat of government, for a county or civil parish. The term is primarily used in the United States....

 of Lauderdale County

Lauderdale County, Mississippi

-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 78,161 people, 29,990 households, and 20,573 families residing in the county. The population density was 111 people per square mile . There were 33,418 housing units at an average density of 48 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...

. It is the sixth largest city in the state and the principal city of the Meridian, Mississippi Micropolitan Statistical Area. Along major highways, the city is 93 mi (149.7 km) east of Jackson, MS; 154 mi (247.8 km) west of Birmingham, AL; 202 mi (325.1 km) northeast of New Orleans, LA; and 231 mi (371.8 km) southeast of Memphis, TN.

Established in 1860 at the intersection of the Mobile and Ohio Railroad

Mobile and Ohio Railroad

The Mobile and Ohio Railroad was a railroad in the Southern U.S. The M&O was chartered in January and February 1848 by the states of Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, and Tennessee. It was planned to span the distance between the seaport of Mobile, Alabama and the Ohio River near Cairo, Illinois...

 and Southern Railway of Mississippi, Meridian relied heavily on the rails and goods transported on them.