Stage Routes

Transcribed verbatim -- except for pagination -- from the three-page SUBJECT FILE entitled “Stagecoach Routes,” found at the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, Jackson, Mississippi, on 02/19/2002. The date of 02/25/48 is handwritten on the top of the file. This is the date that the document was approved in the Mississippi Legislature, which is presented below, as follows:

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Chapter 328.

A MEMORIAL of the Legislature of the State of Mississippi, to the Congress of the United States, in relation to stage routes.

The memorial of the Legislature of the State of Mississippi, respectfully represents unto your honorable body, that the present mode of conveying the mails through a portion of the said State of Mississippi, is wholly inadequate to the public demands. That portion of the State comprising the counties of Attala, Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Pontotoc, central counties, which a few years past was a wilderness, inhabited only by savages, is now densely populated, equaled in numbers to but few counties in the State. Before the organization and settlement of those counties, the leading mail route from Jackson, through the north-eastern portion of the State, was established in view of the then population, which was mainly confined to the counties of Monroe and Lowndes, and was consequently directed circuitously, at a great increase of traveling distance. This circuitous transportation of the mails is yet continued, to the great privation and injury of the country, its dense population notwithstanding. Four-fifths of the mailable matter transported from Jackson, and south of that point, to the counties of Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Pontotoc, is necessarily directed on this circuitous and unfavorable route, from the fact that the only line of stages passing through that country runs on the line above mentioned. This line, as now in operation, runs from Kosciusko to Columbus and Aberdeen, where it intersects another line from thence via Pontotoc to Holly Springs. A large portion of this route passes through a prairie country, almost impassable for a large portion of the year; whereas, a direct route from Kosciusko via Greensboro and Houston to Pontotoc, passes through no prairie, and, with the exception of a few swamps, is an excellent, dry, and firm road, and would curtail the distance about one-fifth.

This memorial further represents, that a line of stage coaches, tri-weekly, from Kosciusko via Greensboro and Houston to Pontotoc as aforesaid, or which would be equivalent thereto, to change this present line from Aberdeen to Pontotoc, so as to run it by the way of Houston, and terminate the former at Houston, would add greatly to the convenience of a large and meritorious portion of the people of the State, and even then fall far short of doing justice to them, compared to the facilities granted to other portions of her citizens.

This memorial further represents, that in addition to the route and change of route above suggested, a further line, properly connected with the former, running from Greensboro via Shongola, Middleton, and Carrollton, to Greenwood, would constitute one direct and continued (sic) line from Tuscumbia, Alabama, (that great reservoir of southern mails,) to Greenwood, Mississippi, a regular shipping point on the Yazoo river. This memorial further represents, that a mail route, with four horse post coaches, commencing at Kosciusko, in Attala county, and passing through Greensboro, Choctaw county; thence to Houston, Chickasaw county; thence to Pontotoc, Pontotoc county; thence to New Albany, Pontotoc county; thence to Ripley, Tippah county; thence to Berlin, Hardeman county, Tennessee; thence to Bolivar, Hardeman county, Tennessee, would make a route of mail coaches, passing through the centre of the State of Mississippi, more than one half of its length, to the city of Jackson, and directly connecting with the great western route, passing through Nashville, Tennessee, and Lexington and Maysville, Kentucky, and also intersecting the great southern mail route from Charleston, South Carolina, to Memphis, Tennessee, at Ripley, Mississippi. This memorial would state, that this entire route, after it leaves Greensboro, Choctaw county, is a ridge way, and is the nearest and most direct route to Washington city, that could be established in this State, and would pass through seven of the most populous counties of the State of Mississippi, therefore,

Resolved, by the Legislature of the State of Mississippi, That our senators in Congress be instructed and our representatives requested to urge upon Congress to establish the routes above suggested; and also to urge upon the postmaster general the necessity of causing the mails to be carried on the same by means of stage coaches, to be drawn by two to four horses, as the weight and character of the mails may require.

Be it further resolved, That the Governor cause to be transmitted to each of our senators and representatives in Congress a copy of the foregoing memorial and resolutions.

Approved February 25, 1848.

Laws of the State of Mississippi, Passed at a Regular Session of the Mississippi Legislature, Held in the City of Jackson, January, February, and March, 1848 (Jackson 1848), pp. 538-541.