Editing Madison, Mississippi (section)

==History==
The city of Madison, named for [[James Madison]], the fourth president of the United States, developed along a bustling railroad track in antebellum Mississippi. It began in 1856 when the [[Illinois Central Railroad]] opened '''Madison Station''', the forerunner of the city of Madison.<ref name="History of Madison">{{Cite web|url=http://www.madisonthecity.com/history-madison|title=History of Madison|date=26 February 2015}}</ref>

The nearby town of Madisonville was a settlement along the stagecoach route on the [[Natchez Trace]]. It was the first [[county seat]] of Madison County in 1828,<ref name="Rowland">{{cite book | last = Rowland | first = Dunbar | title = Mississippi: Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions, and Persons, Arranged in Cyclopedic Form | publisher = Southern Historical Publishing Association | year = 1907 | url = https://www.familysearch.org/library/books/records/item/548960-redirection | volume = 2 | page = 163}}</ref> and had a race track, two banks, a wagon factory, and at least one hotel. Its residents gradually moved to the new railroad community, and old Madisonville became defunct.

Like many railroad towns in the [[Southern United States|South]], Madison Station was heavily damaged by the [[Union Army]] during the [[American Civil War|Civil War]]. Ten miles from the state capital of [[Jackson, Mississippi|Jackson]], Madison Station was largely destroyed in 1863 after the July 18–22 [[Jackson expedition|siege of Jackson]]. No battles were fought in Madison County, but Major General [[Stephen D. Lee]] concentrated his command in Madison Station during the month of February 1864. Stephen Lee was later appointed as the first president of Mississippi State College (now [[Mississippi State University]]).<ref name="History of Madison"/>

The railroad continued to attract growth after the Civil War. In 1897, the Madison Land Company encouraged northerners to "Go South, and grow up with the country." Located in [[Chicago]], the land company's interest in development prompted Madison to incorporate as a village, though the charter was lost when regular elections were not held because of the failure of the "land boom".<ref name="History of Madison"/>

The Madison Land Company offered prime land for as little as $3.00 an acre. It claimed that Mississippi had the lowest debt ratio in the United States at $19.00 per capita and that Mississippians were one-third healthier by "official figures" than people in [[New York (state)|New York]] and [[Massachusetts]]. The figures were quoted in the Madison Land Company's brochure by Bishop Hugh Miller Thompson, the second Episcopal bishop of the [[Episcopal Diocese of Mississippi|Diocese of Mississippi]] and a Madison resident, who originally came from [[Wisconsin]].<ref name="History of Madison"/>

After many years of court battles, the city annexed other territory to expand its limits in size in the late 2000s.

On [[Tornado outbreak of November 23–24, 2001|November 24, 2001]], a violent F4 tornado impacted western portions of the city. Many homes were severely damaged or destroyed, including some that were leveled and swept from their foundations in the Fairfield subdivision. The tornado traveled {{convert|11.5|mi|km}} across Madison County, damaging or destroying 164 homes along the path. Two people were killed by the tornado, and 21 others were injured.<ref>{{Cite web |last=US Department of Commerce |first=NOAA |title=NWS Jackson, MS - Nov. 24, 2001 Tornado Outbreak Madison County MS |url=https://www.weather.gov/jan/2001_11_24_tor_madison_ms |access-date=2024-06-03 |website=www.weather.gov |language=EN-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Storm Events Database - Event Details {{!}} National Centers for Environmental Information |url=https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/stormevents/eventdetails.jsp?id=5272625 |access-date=2024-06-03 |website=www.ncdc.noaa.gov}}</ref>