Editing New Houlka, Mississippi (section)

==History==
This area was a well-established center of [[Chickasaw]] culture by the 1500s.<ref name="WPA">{{cite book | title = Mississippi: The WPA Guide to the Magnolia State | publisher = Viking Press | year = 1938 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=C4VQ8viRWvYC&lpg=PP1&pg=PP1 | pages = 462| isbn = 9781604732894 }}</ref>

Settlers arrived in the late 1700s and established a Chickasaw Agency House at Houlka for trading with the natives.<ref name="WPA"/> Agency representatives called the settlement "Holkey" in their earliest correspondence, which dates from 1794 after the United States gained independence from Great Britain.<ref name="Atkinson"/>

Houlka was located at the crossroads of the ancient Native American pathways known as the [[Natchez Trace]] and the [[Gaines Trace]].<ref name="Turner">{{cite web | last =  Young Turner | first = Debbie | title = Houlka, Miss.: 'Center of the Universe' | publisher = WN.com | date = September 29, 2012 | url = http://article.wn.com/view/2013/09/15/Houlka_Miss_Center_of_the_Universe_Photos/}}</ref>

In 1805, [[Silas Dinsmoor]] hosted a ball at the Agency House.  Attending were future U.S. Representative [[John McKee (politician)|John McKee]] and former U.S. Vice-President [[Aaron Burr]].<ref>{{cite book | last = Kennedy | first = Roger G. | title = Burr, Hamilton, and Jefferson: A Study in Character | publisher = Oxford University Press | year = 1999 | isbn = 9780199923793 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=jpc4fdL_qgAC&lpg=PP1&pg=PP1}}</ref> A post office was established in 1826.<ref name="Atkinson"/> The cultivation and processing of cotton became the basis of the economy, and African slaves were brought to the region through the domestic slave trade to serve as laborers. The production of cotton brought some wealth to white planters.

During the Civil War, Confederate forces led by General [[Samuel J. Gholson]] clashed with Federal troops at a swamp-crossing near Houlka.<ref>{{cite book | last = Foster | first = Buck T. | title = Sherman's Mississippi Campaign | publisher = University of Alabama Press | year = 2006 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=hxkM77iFfyoC&lpg=PP1&pg=PP1 | pages = 130| isbn = 9780817315191 }}</ref>

Houlka was incorporated in 1884.<ref name="Turner"/> Houlka High School was founded in 1890 "to establish a permanent and high grade institution for the education of white students of both sexes".{{rp|578}}<ref name="Mississippi Legislature">{{cite book | title = Mississippi Session Laws | publisher = Mississippi Legislature | year = 1890 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=MQRGAQAAIAAJ&pg=PP15 | pages = 578, 579}}</ref> The Legislature also prohibited sales of "intoxicating liquors" within {{convert|4|mi|km|abbr=on}} of the school.<ref name="Mississippi Legislature"/> That year the Mississippi legislature, dominated by white Democrats, passed a new constitution that effectively [[Disfranchisement after Reconstruction era|disenfranchised most blacks]], a status that the state maintained well into the 1960s to exclude them from the state's political system.

In 1904, the [[Gulf and Ship Island Railroad]] built a line from [[New Albany, Mississippi|New Albany]] to [[Pontotoc, Mississippi|Pontotoc]], passing {{convert|1|mi|km|abbr=on}} east of Houlka.  Soon after, residents began moving to "New Houlka", located near the railway line, which had become critical to commerce.  Buildings were rolled on logs from Old Houlka to New Houlka, and pulled by teams of oxen.

By 1906, New Houlka had a bank, three churches, a saw mill, an academy, a plow factory, and a population of about 500.  The town was incorporated that same year.<ref name="WPA"/><ref name="Turner"/><ref name="ITT">{{cite web | title = Interpreting the Trail | publisher = Rails-to-Trails Recreational District | url = http://www.tanglefoottrail.com/about-us/interpreting-the-trail/ | accessdate = May 23, 2015}}</ref><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://archive.org/details/mississippicomp01rowlgoog | volume = 1 | page = 890}}</ref>

During the mid to late 20th century, railroads restructured and closed many lines, even for freight, because of competition from trucking. In 2004, the railway running through New Houlka, by then owned by the [[Ripley and New Albany Railroad|Mississippi Tennessee Railroad]], was abandoned between New Albany and [[Houston, Mississippi|Houston]], a distance of {{convert|43.2|mi|km|abbr=on}}. Under the federal 'Rails to Trails' program overseen by the ICC, the track was removed and a [[rail trail]] called the "[[Tanglefoot Trail]]" was built on the right-of-way, creating a new recreational and public health resource.<ref>{{cite web | last = Howe | first = Tony | title = (New) Houlka, Mississippi | publisher = Mississippi Rails | url = http://www.msrailroads.com/Towns/Houlka.htm | accessdate = May 23, 2015}}</ref>