Mississippi - Tidbits of History

Header image from National Park Service, Natchez National Historic Park, Mississippi.

Mississippi was the 20th state admitted to the union. It became a state on December 10, 1817

Bird: Mockingbird

The mockingbird can imitate many sounds, including the chirps of some 35 different bird species. And the chatty flier can learn over 200 different songs in its lifetime. Northern mockingbirds are very smart animals. They are able to identify humans, especially those that tried to destroy their nests. Northern mockingbirds mate for a lifetime. Male and female build nest together and produce 2 to 4 broods per season. State bird of Arkansas, Florida, Mississippi, Tennessee, Texas

Flower: Magnolia Blossom

Magnolia is an ancient genus. Appearing before bees did, the flowers are theorized to have evolved to encourage pollination by beetles. A magnolia often symbolizes Yin, or the feminine side of life. White magnolias symbolize purity and dignity. Magnolia blossoms have been used to help with menstrual cramps, cough, congestion.
The flowers of many species are considered edible. In parts of England, the petals of M. grandiflora are pickled and used as a spicy condiment. In some Asian cuisines, the buds are pickled and used to flavor rice and scent tea. In Japan, the young leaves and flower buds of Magnolia hypoleuca are broiled and eaten as a vegetable.
(Pregnant women should avoid any alternative medicine including magnolia.)

Tree: Southern Magnolia Tree –

One type of magnolia tree, the cucumbertree, grows to large size and is harvested as a timber tree in northeastern US forests. Its wood is sold as “yellow poplar” along with that of the tuliptree. The Fraser magnolia also attains enough size sometimes to be harvested, as well.

State Quarter
From theus50.com

The Mississippi quarter showcases the beauty and elegance of the state flower, combining the blossoms and leaves of two magnolias with the inscription “The Magnolia State”.

Although there are several varieties of magnolia found throughout the world, it is the southern magnolia, or Magnolia grandiflora, that is native to the southeastern United States. Boasting large, showy white flowers as big as 15 inches across, they are named for the famed 18th century French botanist Pierre Magnol. Mississippi adopted it as the state flower in 1952.

In 1900, when Mississippi schoolchildren were asked to vote for a state flower, they selected the magnolia over a group that included cape jasmine, yellow jasmine and cotton. The selection remained unofficial, however, as the legislature did not act on the result. A similar election for state tree in 1935 gave the magnolia a landslide victory, one that was made official on April 1, 1938. On February 26, 1952, the Mississippi legislature finally adopted the magnolia as the state flower, opposed by only one vote.

Capital: Jackson, Mississippi

Nickname: Magnolia State

Motto: By valor and arms

Mississippi Facts and Trivia

Mississippi covers 48,441 square miles, making it the 32nd largest. It is 170 miles W-E and 340 miles N-S.

After the Missouri River, the Mississippi River is the second largest river of the United States. It is 3,778 km long. The Mississippi River lies entirely within the United States.

The state of Mississippi was named for the Mississippi River which is the primary waterway in the U. S. The river is the source of the song “Old Man River” from “Show Boat”, by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II, sung by Paul Robeson.

Natchez was settled by the French in 1716 and is the oldest permanent settlement on the Mississippi River. Natchez once had 500 millionaires, more than any other city except New York City.

The Natchez Trace Parkway, named an All American Road by the federal government, extends from Natchez to just south of Nashville, Tennessee. The Trace began as an Indian trail more than 8,000 years ago.

Mississippi was the 20th state admitted to the union. It became a state on December 10, 1817

In 1834 Captain Isaac Ross, whose plantation was in Lorman, freed his slaves and arranged for them to be sent to Africa, where they founded the country of Liberia. Recently, representatives of Liberia visited Lorman and placed a stone at the Captain’s gravesite in honor of his kindness.

Borden’s Condensed Milk was first canned in Liberty. in 1857.

The first bottle of Dr. Tichener’s Antiseptic was produced in Liberty in 1863. George Humphrey Tichenor (1837-1923) was a physician who introduced antiseptic surgery while in the service of the Confederate States of America. He is believed to have been the first surgeon to use antiseptic during the War Between the States. Dr. Tiehenor’s Antiseptic is still being produced and is available commercially.

Friendship Cemetery in Columbus has been called Where Flowers Healed a Nation. It was April 25, 1866, and the Civil War had been over for a year when the ladies of Columbus decided to decorate both Confederate and Union soldiers’ graves with beautiful bouquets and garlands of flowers. The women’s tribute – treating the soldiers as equals – inspired poet Francis Miles Finch to write the poem, The Blue and the Gray, which was published in an 1867 edition of The Atlantic Monthly. As a direct result of this kind gesture, Americans celebrate what has come to be called Memorial Day each year, an annual observance of recognition of war dead.

Mississippi suffered the largest percentage of people who died in the Civil War of any Confederate State. 78,000 Mississippians entered the Confederate military. By the end of the war 59,000 were either dead or wounded.

After the Civil War, famed hat maker John B. Stetson learned and practiced his trade at Dunn’s Falls near Meridian.

In 1884 the concept of selling shoes in boxes in pairs (right foot and left foot) occurred in Vicksburg at Phil Gilbert’s Shoe Parlor on Washington Street.

Sarsaparilla-based root beer was invented in Biloxi in 1898 by Edward Adolf Barq, Sr. (Hires developed his root tea made from sassafras in 1875, debuted a commercial version of root beer at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition in 1876, and began selling his extract. Hires was a teetotaler who wanted to call the beverage “root tea”. However, his desire to market the product to Pennsylvania coal miners caused him to call his product “root beer”, instead.)

In 1902 while on a hunting expedition in Sharkey County, President Theodore (Teddy) Roosevelt refused to shoot a captured bear. This act resulted in the creation of the world-famous teddy bear.

The sport of water-skiing was conceived in Mississippi on a stretch called Lake Pepin in the 1920s.

Pine Sol was invented in 1929 by Jackson native Harry A. Cole, Sr.

In 1963 the University of Mississippi Medical Center accomplished the world’s first human lung transplant and, on January 23, 1964, Dr. James D. Hardy performed the world’s first heart transplant surgery, using the heart of a chimpanzee. ( A xenotransplantation is the technical term for the transplant of an organ or tissue from one species to another. ) The patient lived for 60-90 minutes.

Blazon-Flexible Flyer, Inc. in West Point is proclaimed to make the very best snow sled in the United States, which became an American tradition. It is called The Flexible Flyer.

David Harrison of Columbus owns the patent on the Soft Toilet Seat. Over 1,000,000 are sold every year.

The Vicksburg National Cemetery is the second largest national cemetery in the country. Arlington National Cemetery is the largest.

D’Lo was featured in “Life Magazine” for sending proportionally more men to serve in World War II than any other town of its size. 38 percent of the men who lived in D’Lo served. The town has an area of 0.7 square miles.

Greenwood is called the Cotton Capital of the World.

Belzoni is called the Catfish Capital of the World.

Vardaman is called the Sweet Potato Capital of the World.

Greenville is called the Towboat Capital of the World.

The International Checkers Hall of Fame is in Petal.

If you love the ballet and want to see the International Ballet Competition, Jackson is one of the four cities of the world that is sanctioned by The International Theater-Dance Committee to host the competition. The other three cities are Moscow, Russia; Varna, Bulgaria and Helsinki, Finland

The Mississippi is the birthplace of the Blues, which foreshadowed the birth of Jazz, the only other original American art form. It originated after the Civil War and is rooted in the folk songs sung by slaves and African spirituals. Since then it has been the medium of expression for many African Americans.

Like many southern states, Mississippi voted almost exclusively with the Democratic Party from Reconstruction through the early 1960s, when civil rights legislation and a Republican tactic called the “Southern Strategy” helped turn the state “red.” Three times since World War II, Mississippi has voted all its electors for third-party candidates, more than any other state. Since 1972, the state has voted Republican, except for 1976 when it supported Jimmy Carter of Georgia. In 2016, Donald Trump easily won the state by 58% to Hillary Clinton’s 40%.

Silly Mississippi State Laws:
In Mississippi, it is illegal to house a horse within 50 feet of any road.
You can be arrested if you interrupt a religous service.
According to one town’s laws, any groom-to-be must “prove himself manly” before marriage by hunting and killing either 6 blackbirds or 3 cows.
It is a violation of the law to live with your significant other if you are not married. Additionally, sleeping with someone who isn’t your spouse is also illegal and carries a fine of $500 and/or 6 months in prison.
According to the Mississippi Code of laws, it is illegal to seduce a woman over the age of 18 with “promised or pretended marriage.” Should someone be found guilty of such a crime, he could land behind bars for up to five years.

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