Editing Leland, Mississippi (section)

=== 1800–1900: Founding ===
The area in which Leland sits was once part of the [[Choctaw]] territory in the early 1800s. After the Second Choctaw Cession, which came from the [[Treaty of Doak's Stand]] of 1820, the land was fought over by the United States government and the [[Choctaw in the American Civil War|Choctaw Indians during the American Civil War]] in which the Choctaw Indians sided with the [[Confederate States of America|Confederacy]] in order to fight the Union for the return of their land.<ref>{{Cite book|author1-link=David Sansing|last=Sansing|first=David G.|title=A Place Called Mississippi|publisher=Clairmont Press, Inc.|year=2013|isbn=978-1-56733-244-5|location=Atlanta, Georgia|language=English}}</ref>

The territory that the town was built on was first settled on in 1834 by Samuel and Susan Jones, Mary Neely, and Malinda Breeland. A few years later, they deeded the land to the families of Connerly and Buckner. They made their home on the bank of Deer Creek on the Three Oaks Plantation. Soon other settlers came to live in Leland and the Stoneville area. To travel between both places at the time, people used boats to navigate on Deer Creek. There was even a drawbridge that was built by Leland settlers to be more closely connected with the people of Stoneville.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|title=25 Jun 1939, Page 13 - The Delta Democrat-Times at Newspapers.com|url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/?clipping_id=88061329&fcfToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJmcmVlLXZpZXctaWQiOjIzNTg5MTk4LCJpYXQiOjE2MzU2NDkzMTMsImV4cCI6MTYzNTczNTcxM30.337Z6tGQNl-7YBPOX57OtUzitF_nnRywAbCRvWGCNB4|access-date=2021-10-31|website=Newspapers.com|language=en}}</ref>
[[File:Captain James Alexander Ventress Feltus.jpg|left|thumb|upright|This is a photo of Captain James Alexander Ventress Feltus who was a captain in the American Civil War for the Confederacy. He is the founder of the town of Leland, Mississippi.]]
Years later, the Buckner and Connerly families moved away and sold their land to Judge James Rucks and William Yerger. The new owners maintained the land until the American Civil War. In 1869, their heirs [[Quitclaim deed|quit claimed]] the land for release mortgages which passed to the hands of the Bank of Kentucky. After seven years, Mississippi native Captain James Alexander Ventress Feltus (1840–1908) bought the 900 acres of land for $12,000.<ref name=":1" />

Captain James A. V. Feltus built his home at the “Three Oaks” and deeded a 100-foot right-of-way on the land to the Memphis and Vicksburg Railroad Company; however, no railway was built until 1885, when the right of way was given to the Louisville, New Orleans and Texas Railroad Company. Leland was one of two cities considered for a terminus of several railroad lines, most notably, the Louisville, New Orleans & Texas Railway. Captain John C. Calhoun, an enterprising and liberal owner of the Leland Plantation, pushed efforts to make Leland a primary candidate for the terminus.<ref>{{Cite news|date=1882-09-16|title=The town of Leland was being considered for a vote to be the new terminus for the railroad company.|pages=2|work=The Weekly Democrat-Times|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/87982982/the-town-of-leland-was-being-considered/|access-date=2021-10-31}}</ref>

Captain Feltus dedicated the original town of Leland by signing deeds that created streets from First to Eighth Streets, which included Main and Broad Streets as the east and west boundaries of the town. Accounts state that Captain Feltus named the town after Miss Leland McCutcheon, the mother of Feltus’ friend, Ruben Armstrong and fiancé of young traveling railroad auditor C. E. Armstrong.<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite news|date=1953-06-28|title=James Alexander Ventress Feltus was the founder of the Town of Leland Mississippi|pages=20|work=The Delta Democrat-Times|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/88059576/james-alexander-ventress-feltus-was-the/|access-date=2021-10-31}}</ref> It would seem that both accounts state that both men asked Captain Feltus to name the town in her honor. The first store built in the town of Leland was the Greenley's Mens Store, owned by J. C. Greenley.
[[File:Picture of the Old Leland Train depot from the 1900s.png|thumb|upright=1.2|A snapshot of a newspaper clipping that shows a postcard of the old Leland Train Depot in the 1900s.]]

In January 1886, the citizens of the town drafted a charter to incorporate the town of Leland and sent it by mail to the representatives at Jackson, Mississippi.<ref>{{Cite news|date=1886-01-30|title=Report from the Leland Record about chartering the city of Leland, Mississippi.|pages=1|work=The Weekly Democrat-Times|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/87803872/report-from-the-leland-record-about/|access-date=2021-10-31}}</ref> By February of that year, the charter was amended in bills H.B. 642 and H.B. 643 and was well on its way to making the town officially recognized as a city; it was approved on February 20, 1886.<ref>{{Cite news|date=1886-03-02|title=Jackson, Miss newspaper reporting law declaring the town of Leland, Miss. incorporated.|pages=1|work=The State Ledger|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/87777546/jackson-miss-newspaper-reporting-law/|access-date=2021-10-31}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|date=1888-02-23|title=The vote to incorporate the town of Leland in Washington County passed.|pages=1|work=The Clarion-Ledger|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/87777094/the-vote-to-incorporate-the-town-of/|access-date=2021-10-31}}</ref>
As the town continued to progress, it established its first newspaper publication, ''The Leland Record'',<ref name=":2">{{Cite news|date=1886-01-20|title=Mention of the first published paper of the Leland Record (January 1886)|pages=4|work=The Vicksburg Herald|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/87809048/mention-of-the-first-published-paper-of/|access-date=2021-10-31}}</ref> and businesses were established, including retail, banks, law firms, other railway companies, grocers, innkeepers, landlords and more.