Winchester, Mississippi
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Winchester | |
|---|---|
  Winchester | |
| Coordinates: 31°37′04″N 88°35′26″W / 31.61778°N 88.59056°W | |
| Country | United States |
| State | Mississippi |
| County | Wayne |
| Elevation | 160 ft (50 m) |
| Time zone | UTC-6 (Central (CST)) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC-5 (CDT) |
| GNIS feature ID | 679779[1] |
Winchester is a ghost town in Wayne County, Mississippi, United States.
Once a center of political influence and county seat, the former settlement is today covered by forest.
Winchester was one of the first significant communities in eastern Mississippi. It was located about 1 mi (1.6 km) east of the Chickasawhay River, and south of "Three-Chopped Way", a pioneer road completed in 1807 connecting Georgia and the Carolinas, via St. Stephens, Alabama, with Natchez in eastern Mississippi.[2]: 568, 569
The town "was situated on a beautiful level site, covered with large oak and other shade trees", and Meadows Mill Creek flowed through Winchester, "a beautiful and never-failing creek of the purest water".[3]
A military post—Patton's Fort—was erected at Winchester in 1813 during the Creek War.[4]
Winchester became "a place of considerable importance in the territorial period and in the days of early statehood",[4] and was Wayne County's first county seat.[3] Incorporated in 1818, Winchester flourished and in 1822 a court house was built "of pine lumber of the best quality".[2]: 943 [3] A jail was built in the 1840s, with walls "three feet thick of heavy hewed pine".[5]
Winchester was described as "a center of political influence, second only to Natchez".[4] It had between 20 and 30 businesses, and became a successful commercial center, "having no competing trading points near".[3][4]
