MISSISSIPPI Labauve, Felix, was born at Vanziers, France, Nov. 16, 1809. His father died when he was a child, and he was sent by his mother, who was poor, to her brothers at Camden, S. C., to be reared by them. He became a clerk in their store; came to Mississippi in 1835; carried on a mercantile business among the Indians in DeSoto county; moved to Hernando in 1838; became a lawyer and an ardent Democrat; was one of the editors of the Phoenix in 1841-42; was elected to the legislature in 1843 and to the State senate in 1845. He served as a county official for two years; was an ardent secessionist; and while too old to be a regular soldier, was in the Confederate service part of the time. one occasion he captured, single handed, four of the enemy. He served in the legislature in 1866, and was the State commissioner to the Paris exposition in 1877. He never married and when he died, at an advanced age, his will gave $5,000 to Miss Bertha Ponsin, of France, his only relative living; generously remembered a number of widows; gave some property for the building of a Catholic church; and gave the rest of his estate for the creation of scholarships in the University of Mississippi to bear his name. Ladner, a post-hamlet in the southeastern part of Pearl River county, situated on the Wolf river, about 15 miles distant from Poplarville, the county seat. Population in 1900, 50. Lafayette County was established February 9, 1836, and was named in honor of the distinguished friend of the American Republic, the Marquis de Lafayette. It is one of the dozen counties carved from the Chickasaw Indian lands in northern Mississippi during that year, after the Chickasaws, in 1832, had surrendered all their remaining lands by the Treaty of Pontotoc. The original act defines its boundaries as follows: "Beginning at the point where the line between townships 11 and 12 intersects the basis meridian, to the center of township 6; thence west, through the center of township 6, according to the sectional lines, to the center of range 5 west; thence south, through the center of range 5 west, according to the sectional lines, to the northern boundary line of Yalobusha county, to the point where the line between townships 11 and 12 intersects the eastern boundary line of Yalobusha county, and thence east with the said township line to the beginning." (See Marshall county for present boundary between Lafayette and Marshall.) The total area is about 673 square miles. Two of the earliest settlements in the county were at Eaton and Wyatt-both of which are now extinct. Eaton was about fifteen miles west of the present town of Oxford, on the Tallahatchie river, where there was a ferry enabling the settlers of parts of Panola and Lafayette counties to cross the river, on their way to and from Oxford. The panic of 1837 destroyed the incipient town. Dr. Corbin was a prominent planter of the neighborhood in the early 30's. Wyatt was located about 13 miles from Oxford, on the supposed head of navigation of the Tallahatchie river. It was first settled about the time of the Chickasaw cession, and was once the shipping point for a large section of country, and boats plied between it and New Orleans. The Brooks gin, manufactured here, was widely used in northern Mississippi. Here dwelt for a time the celebrated Dr. Robert Watt, called the best physician in Northern Mississippi; Thos. H. Allen, A. Gillis, Andrew Peterson, Maj. Alston, Dr. R. O. Carter and Dr. Edw. McMucken. The town decayed rapidly after the panic of 1837. Lafayette county is bounded on the north by the county of Marshall, the Tallahatchie river forming part of the dividing line; on the east, by Union and Pontotoc counties; on the south by Calhoun and Yalobusha counties and on the west by Panola county. The most important town and the county seat is the thriving city of Oxford, built on a beautiful ridge near the center of the county. It contained a population of 1,825, in 1900, an increase of nearly 300 over the census of 1890; in 1906, the population of Oxford was estimated at 2,000. It is noted as the seat of the State University and the home of many families of wealth and culture. It received its name from the English university town of the same name, in anticipation of its subsequent selection as the seat of the State's chief institution of learning. The Uuiversity was located here by Act of the Legislature in 1840, and during the last ten years, has advanced materially in the thoroughness and scope. of its work, as well as in point of attendance. There was also located in Oxford (until 1904), the Union Female College, incorporated in 1838 as the Oxford Female Academy, and, in 1854, reincorporated and placed under the auspices of the Cumberland Presbyterian church. This was the second institution of learning. chartered within the limits of the Chickasaw cession, and ranked as the oldest female school, in the State, of unbroken history. There are 82 white schools and 57 colored schools in the county. Besides Oxford, the towns of Abbeville, Taylor and Springdale are railroad towns of importance. The county is watered by the Tallahatchie and Yocona rivers and their numerous tributaries. The Illinois Central R. R., crosses the central part of the county from north to south and gives the region excellent transportation facilities. The prosperous town of Water Valley, in Yalobusha county, is the market and shipping point for the southern part of the county. The general character of the soil is good and the region produces cotton, corn, oats, sorghum, and all kinds of grasses. A good deal of attention has been paid to the cultivation of fruits and this industry |