Missionary
Missionary, Jasper County, Mississippi

A History of Missionary, Mississippi

The site of missionary, five miles north of Paulding, was once occupied by a tribe of Indians known as the Six Town Tribe. The Six Town Mission Station was established in 1825 by a man named Bardwelll who began a road from Mobile to Jackson, erected a log house, a church and a school house.

It has been said that this valuable tract of land was first purchased from an Indian by Colonel John H. Horne of Wayne County for the price of a cart and a horse. Colonel John Johnson, and Indian Agent, also bought a claim form an Indian, but the titles to these lands became so entangled that no real purchase was made until almost thirty years after the departure of the Indians. Following the Civil War, Judge John W. Fewell finally succeeded in clearing the titles. In 1860 this land was purchased by Alec Russell of Newton County who operated a store with his son S.D. Russel,Sr. The store did a thriving business, over a thirty mile radius; from Montrose to Enterprise and from Hickory to Vossberg.

A community of white settlers had formed here in the late 1840's but a post office was not secured at Missionary until 1875. The settlement was listed as being extinct when the post office was abolished in 1905.


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