Bankston, Mississippi

Bankston, Mississippi
Ghost Town
Bankston Cemetery in 2007
Bankston Bankston
Coordinates: 33°23′50″N 89°22′00″W / 33.39722°N 89.36667°WCoordinates: 33°23′50″N 89°22′00″W / 33.39722°N 89.36667°W
Country	United States
State	Mississippi
County	Choctaw
Elevation	410 ft (120 m)
Time zone	Central (CST) (UTC-6)
• Summer (DST)	CDT (UTC-5)
Area code(s)	Area code 601
GNIS feature ID	707488[1]

Bankston is a ghost town in Choctaw County, Mississippi, United States. The nearest community is French Camp, located 8 mi (13 km) south-southwest.

History

In 1848, the first successful, mechanically powered textile mill in Mississippi was founded in Bankston by James Madison Wesson.^[2] It was named for one of Wesson's financial backers, Mr. Banks from Columbus, Georgia.^[3] Located on McCurtain’s Creek,^[4] a tributary of the Big Black River, the Bankston Textile Mill, also known as Mississippi Manufacturing Company, produced cloth and shoes for the Confederacy after Mississippi seceded from the Union.

Because of its isolated location in the backwoods of Choctaw County, the Bankston Mill continued to operate through 1864. The end came when scouts for the Union Army learned that the mill was turning out one thousand yards of cloth and 150 pairs of shoes each day.^[5] Benjamin Grierson’s federal troops arrived on the night of December 30, 1864, and set fire to the cotton factory, the wool factory, the flour mill, and the shoe factory while locals slept.^[2] Another factory was established in Bankston after the war, but was also burned.^[6]

The population in 1900 was 84. Around that time the settlement had a post office and a grist mill.^[6]

All that remains of the town is the Bankston Cemetery.

References

1. GNIS (Historical Bankston, Mississippi) Retrieved 2013-07-23
2. Wynne, Ben. 2006. Mississippi’s Civil War: A Narrative History. Mercer University Press, Macon, Georgia. Retrieved 2013-07-22
3. Cooper, Forrest Lamar (2011). Looking Back Mississippi: Towns and Places. Univ. Press of Mississippi. p. 224.
4. A History of Cotton Mills and the Industrial Revolution Retrieved 2013-07-23
5. The Bankston Textile Mill Retrieved 2013-07-22
6. Rowland, Dunbar (1907). Mississippi: Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions, and Persons, Arranged in Cyclopedic Form. 1. Southern Historical Publishing Association. p. 208.