Woodville, Mississippi

Woodville is one of the oldest towns in Mississippi and is the county seat of Wilkinson County, Mississippi, United States.<ref name="GR6">Template:Cite web</ref> Its population as of 2020 was 928.<ref name=":0" />

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of Template:Convert, all land.

History

According to a steamboat man named Samuel Clement, after the Battle of New Orleans, Andrew Jackson took from the U.S. armory two cannon that had been used at the Battle of Saratoga and send one to Woodville and one to Natchez.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In 1831 there was a plan to build a railroad from Woodville to St. Francisville at Bayou Sara under the title of West Feliciana Railroad Company.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Demographics

Woodville racial composition as of 2020<ref name=":0">Template:Cite web</ref>

Race	Num.	Perc.
Black or African American	677	72.95%
White	217	23.38%
Other/Mixed	26	2.8%
Hispanic or Latino	5	0.54%
Native American	2	0.22%
Asian	1	0.11%

Per the 2020 United States census, there were 928 people, 386 households, and 277 families residing in the town; its racial composition was 77.95% black, 22.38% non-Hispanic white, 0.22% Native American, 0.11% Asian, 2.8% other or mixed, and 0.54% Hispanic or Latino of any race.<ref name=":0" />

Education

File:WilkinsonCountyHSMS1.JPG

Wilkinson County High School

Wilkinson County School District serves Woodville. There are three education facilities near Woodville: Wilkinson County Elementary School, Wilkinson County High School, and the private school Wilkinson County Christian Academy, which was established in 1969 as a segregation academy.<ref name=Dangerfield>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Wilkinson County is in the district of Southwest Mississippi Community College.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Media

The Woodville Republican, a weekly newspaper founded in 1823, is the oldest surviving business (and thus the oldest newspaper) in Mississippi.<ref name="ME Republican">Template:Cite web</ref>

Notable people

• Julia K. Wetherill Baker (1858Template:Ndash1931), writer and poet, was born in Woodville<ref name=willard1893>Willard, Frances, and Mary Livermore, eds. A Woman of the Century: Fourteen Hundred-Seventy Biographical Sketches Accompanied by Portraits of Leading American Women in All Walks Of Life. New York: Moulton, 1893, p. 48.</ref>
• Betty Bentley Beaumont (1828–1892), author, merchant, cotton factor, hotel owner
• Henry Cohen (rabbi), served here from 1885 to 1888 before going to Galveston, Texas, where he became a nationally known community leader
• Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America; lived near here for a couple of years as a youth on his parents' plantation and attended Woodville Academy, before going to Kentucky to school.
• Ronnie Edwards, Louisiana politician, born in Woodville<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
• Henry Herbert Ogden, aviator in 1924 US Army Air Services around the world flight,<ref>Template:Citation</ref>
• Will E. Keller, businessman
• Rudolph Matthews, handball player
• Edward Grady Partin (1924–1990), born in Woodville, he became a Teamsters Union business agent from Baton Rouge. His testimony sent Jimmy Hoffa to prison.
• Carnot Posey, Civil War Confederate general
• Peter Randolph, early 19th century Federal judge
• Dan Reneau, President of Louisiana Tech University
• William Grant Still, African-American classical composer and Mississippi Musicians Hall of Fame inductee was born in Woodville on May 11, 1895.
• Matt Tolbert, professional baseball infielder
• W. P. S. Ventress (1854–1911), Mississippi state legislator
• George W. Wheeler, Chief Justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court (1920–30)
• Lester Young, jazz musician and Mississippi Musicians Hall of Fame inductee was born in Woodville.<ref name="Gelly">Template:Cite book</ref>
• William Henry Young, Wisconsin politician, born in Woodville

References

<references /> Template:Commons category

External links

• History of Woodville's Jewish community (from the Institute of Southern Jewish Life)