130 MISSISSIPPI FACTS
"Mississippi has always been a bewitched and tragic ground, yet it's also a land of heroism and nobility; a land which has honored those of us of all our races who possess the courage and the imagination of the resources given us on this haunted terrain. I love Mississippi, and I hope the best of it will endure."
Willie Morris
Interview 1986
Did you know...
1. The event which led to the creation of the Teddy Bear occurred near Onward, in 1902, when President Theodore Roosevelt, acting upon the suggestion of some friends, visited the state on a hunt for wild game. A bear was located by a member of the hunting party for the President. The bear was exhausted and possibly lame, some claim it was a mere cub. In any case, Roosevelt refused to shoot the helpless bear because he found it unsporting. News of the President's refusal to shoot the bear spread far and wide. Soon after, Morris Michtom, a New York merchant, made toy history when he created a stuffed toy bear and labeled it "Teddy's Bear. " Mr. Michtom placed the bear in the window of his candy store to draw attention. His success was so great that it led to the formation of the Ideal Toy Corporation in 1903. The Teddy Bear continues to be a favorite toy of children everywhere.
2. The Blues is a music form that began in the cotton fields of the Mississippi Delta, and is considered the only music original to the United States. The University of Mississippi Blues Archive in Oxford, contains the world's largest collection of Blues music.
3. The world's first round trip transoceanic flight was performed in 1928 by H. T. Merrill, from Iuka. The flight to England was made in a plane loaded with ping pong balls.
4. Vardaman is the Sweet Potato Capital of the world. The Sweet Potato Festival is held each November to celebrate this most delectable root.
5. William Faulkner, one of the literary giants of the twentieth century, was born in New Albany. His accomplishments include winning the Nobel Prize for Literature, two Pulitzer Prizes and the National Book Award. He is considered to be the greatest writer of fiction during the first half of the 20th century. His novels include The Reivers, The Sound and The Fury, Light In August, and Absalom, Absalom. His home, Rowan Oak, in Oxford, is open to the public. At Rowan Oak, visitors may view Faulkner's room where an outline for A Fable has been scribbled on the wall by the author's own hand.
6. Tupelo is the birthplace of the "King of Rock and Roll," Elvis Presley. Visitors may tour the Elvis Presley Museum, chapel and the two-room house where "The King" was born.
7. The world's oldest Holiday Inn is located in Clarksdale.
8. Lawrence "Rabbit" Kennedy, of Amory, was the most decorated soldier in the U.S. Army.
9. Oxford was home to John Grisham, author of The Firm, Pelican Brief, The Chamber, The Client, A Time To Kill, The Rainmaker, the Runaway Jury... The list continues to grow. Many of his novels have been made into feature films.
10. General Frank Gregory, of Shelby, was one of the principal developers of the helicopter.
11. Guy Bush, of Tupelo, was one of the most valuable players with the Chicago Cubs. He was on the 1929 World Series team and Babe Ruth hit his last home run off a ball pitched by Bush.
12. During the 1930's one of Mississippi's most famous pilots, a barnstormer by the name of Roscoe Turner, of Corinth, was proclaimed one of the best speed pilots in the U.S. He was, perhaps, best known for flying with his animal mascot, an African lion cub named Gilmore. A world renowned aviator, Turner is featured in the National Air and Space Museum at the Smithsonian Institute and is the only three time winner of the Thompson Trophy Race. In Corinth, during August, visitors can enjoy the Annual Roscoe Turner Hot Air Balloon Races, which offer a weekend of fun, festivities, food and entertainment.
13. Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest, of Civil War fame, was reared in Benton County and has been declared by military historians and critics alike to be the foremost Cavalry officer ever produced in America.
14. S. B. "Sam" Vick of Oakland, played for the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox. He was the only man ever to pinch hit for baseball great Babe Ruth.
15. Blazon-Flexible Flyer, Inc., in West Point, is proclaimed to make the very best snow sled in the U.S. Their famous sled has become a true American tradition. It's called the FLEXIBLE FLYER.
16. The world's first human lung transplant was performed at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, in 1963. The world's first heart transplant was performed at the Center the following year.
17. Mississippi College, in Clinton, was the first co-educational college in the United States to grant a degree to a woman.
18. Jimmie Rodgers, from Meridian, has long been recognized as "The Father of Country Music," and was the first name placed in the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, Tennessee. The Jimmie Rodgers Museum, in Meridian, is dedicated to this amazing performer who was known worldwide as "The Singing Brakeman," The museum features his original guitar, and other memorabilia of his life and career.
19. Mississippi produces more than 70% of the world's supply of farm-raised catfish. Each year, in April, the World Catfish Festival is held in Belzoni, which is known as the Catfish Capital of the World. Visitors will enjoy a browse through the Catfish Institute, which offers a look at this profitable industry from "pond to plate."
20. "Margaret, marry me and I'll build you a palace," proposed the Reverend H.D. Dennis. Margaret said she would and he did, of sorts. Thus began one man's odyssey into the world of masonry, whereby, he turned a simple community store into an ever-evolving monument to God, country and wife. Preacher, as the patrons of MARGARET'S GROCERY, in Vicksburg, call him, is a World War II veteran who learned masonry from the Germans. They advised him to always be unique in his work. Bright colors of red, white and blue with a dab of yellow here and there adorn the castle-like pillars and archways at the entrance and the walls surrounding this unusual structure. Of the fifty foot tower overlooking a gravel parking lot, Preacher says, "God keeps telling me to keep going higher." And he does.
21. In 1982, through a Joint Resolution of the United States Congress, Jackson became the official home of the USA International Ballet Competition, which is now held every fourth year in Jackson, during the second weekend in June. This dance competition is touted as the Olympics of Dance, where competitors vie for gold, silver and bronze medals, cash awards and scholarships. Jackson is the only city in the United States to host this international event. In Europe, host cities include Moscow, Russia; Helsinki, Finland; Paris, France and Varna, Bulgaria.
22. In the Mississippi Delta can be found Greenwood, home of Cotton Row, which is on the National Register of Historic Places. It is the second largest cotton exchange in the United States, and is known as the Cotton Capital of the World.
23. Columbus was incorporated in 1821 and was first called Possum Town, due to the opossumish features of Spirus Roach, a trader living there. Today the beautiful old town is called Columbus, for the famous Spanish explorer.
24. Greenville is the Towboat Capital of the World, and birthplace of Jim Henson, creator of the world famous Muppets.
25. In Rose Hill Cemetery, in Meridian, are the graves of Emil and Kelly Mitchell, the King and Queen of all the Gypsies in the United States. People travel from near and far to leave small gifts of fruit and juice at the grave sites in a cemetery that has been, since 1915, the burial site for the Gypsy Royal Family.
26. The 4-H Club was founded in Holmes County in 1907.
27. Mississippi native Ethel Wright Mohamed is world renowned for her unique style of art stitchery and was known as the Grandma Moses of Stitchery. Her works are now on permanent display at the Smithsonian Institute. Many fine examples of her art may be seen at the Ethel Wright Mohamed Museum, MAMA'S DREAM WORLD, located at 307 Central Street, Belzoni.
28. The Governor Mansion, circa 1842, in Jackson, is the second oldest executive residence in the United States that has been continuously occupied as a gubernatorial residence. The Mansion is a National Historic Landmark.
29. The Petrified Forest, in Flora, is found to be about 36 million years old and is a National Registered Landmark.
30. The Waterways Experiment Station, in Vicksburg, is the largest research, testing and development facility of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
31. Greenville is the birthplace of puppetmaster Jim Henson, creator of Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Big Bird, Cookie Monster... the list goes on and on. In Leland, where he spent his boyhood along Deer Creek, can be found the BIRTHPLACE OF THE FROG MUSEUM, an exhibit dedicated to this unique individual who has made the world laugh and smile at the antics of his Muppets and the Sesame Street Characters.
32. In Greenwood Cemetery, at Jackson, are the grave sites of seven Mississippi governors, four State Supreme Court Justices, four Episcopal bishops, one Methodist bishop and James Lynch, an African-American who served as Mississippi's Secretary of State during the post-Civil War years. Also, you will find numerous graves of Civil War soldiers, including several famous Generals.
33. Friendship Cemetery, in Columbus, is known as "the place -where flowers healed a nation." It was here on April 25, 1866, barely a year after the Civil War ended, that the kind ladies of Columbus decided to decorate both Confederate and Union graves with beautiful bouquets and garlands of flowers. As a direct result of this kind gesture, Americans now celebrate what has come to be known as Memorial Day, the annual recognition of our war dead.
34. The Biedenharn Candy Company Museum, in Vicksburg, commemorates the site where the world famous soft drink beverage, Coca-Cola, was first bottled in 1894.
35. The Dentzel Carousel, circa 1892-99, in Meridian, is one of three two-row antique stationary Dentzel menagerie carousels in existence. Original paintings of museum quality adorn the top crown and all animals are meticulously hand-carved of basswood and poplar. For twenty-five cents you can take a ride on this remarkable National Historic Landmark.
36. Shoes were first sold in boxes in pairs (right foot and left foot) in 1884, in Vicksburg, at Phil Gilberts Shoe Parlor on Washington Street.
37. Kosciusko is the birthplace of Oprah Winfrey, nationally syndicated talk show host and actor.
38. Greenville is home to Shelby Foote, novelist, historian and Pulitzer Prize winner.
39. Margaret Walker Alexander, of Jackson, was a poet, novelist, essayist, and author of the international best seller titled, Jubilee.
40. Beth Henley is a playwright and Pulitzer Prize winner from Jackson.
41. Eudora Welty is a world renowned novelist, short story writer, and winner of a Pulitzer Prize as well as the American Book Award. Ms. Welty is from Jackson, where as a child, she roller skated through the marbled halls of the State Capitol Building on her way to the library. Often as not the librarian would send her back home to put on her petticoat, no doubt forgotten in her haste.
42. Columbus born Thomas Lanier, best known as Tennessee Williams, was a novelist, short story writer, poet, playwright, and winner of two Pulitzer Prizes and four New York Drama Circle Critics Awards. He was known to spend his summers in Clarksdale, and his home, in Columbus, is now a Welcome Center and open to the public year-round.
43. James Dotson Byrd, of Clinton, is an inventor and polymer scientist with more than 40 technical publications to his credit. Mr. Byrd holds seven U.S. patents and developed the plastic used as a heat shield in the NASA Space Program.
44. Harry A. Cole, Sr., of Jackson, invented Pine-Sol.
45. Arthur Guyton, of Jackson, is a physician and author of the most widely used text of physiology in the world.
46. Mississippi University for Women was the first state college for women in the nation. The college was established in Columbus by an act of the Mississippi Legislature on March 12, 1884.
47. The largest Bible binding plant in the nation is the Norris Bookbinding Company, in Greenwood.
48. The first female rural mail carrier in the U.S. was Mrs. Mamie Thomas. In 1914 she delivered mail by buggy to the area southeast of Vicksburg.
49. The largest cottonwood plantation in the world is the Fitler Plantation in Issaquena County. The plantation is comprised of over 20,000 acres.
50. Every commercial airliner in the free world has at least one hydraulic component on it that was designed and manufactured at Vickers, Incorporated. This leader in hydraulics is located in Jackson.
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