Front
A recording artist, disc jockey, comedian, and ambassador for Memphis music, Rufus Thomas (1917 – 2001) was born here in Cayce. As a young man Thomas toured with the Rabbit Foot Minstrels, and later worked in Memphis as an . . . — — Map (db m96779) HM
Airliewood, built in 1858 for William H. Coxe on a fifteen acre estate, is a gothic style villa. The massive iron gate and fence are attributed to Wood & Perot of Boston. At the invitation of Coxe, the house was used by Major General U.S. Grant as . . . — — Map (db m85131) HM
This Gothic villa, probably designed by
the firm of the distinguished architect
Samuel Sloan, was built in 1858 for a
reported $40,000 by wealthy planter William
Henry Coxe on a fifteen-acre tract purchased
in 1857. The massive cast iron gates . . . — — Map (db m200084) HM
At the original site of the Asbury Methodist Church, the Upper Mississippi conference was organized on February 5, 1891. Classes first held in the church led to the establishment of Rust College. — — Map (db m85132) HM
In 1964-65, the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO) came to Holly Springs, MS.
This monument is in honor and recognition of the students who came from across the country and joined with Rust College students and local citizens to register . . . — — Map (db m117499) HM
On October 14, 1862, Confederate Lieutenant General John C. Pemberton became commander of the Department of the Mississippi and East Louisiana, and two days later Union Major General Ulysses S. Grant assumed command of the Department of the . . . — — Map (db m183928) HM
Union General Ulysses S. Grant, frustrated by illegal smuggling of cotton for war materials conducted by Northern and Southern speculators, issued General Order #11 from Holly Springs. The order explicitly focused on Jews, anywhere within Tennessee, . . . — — Map (db m169021) HM
(side 1)
Although Delta blues often claims the spotlight, other styles of the blues were produced in other regions of Mississippi. In the greater Holly Springs area, musicians developed a "hill county" blues style characterized by few chord . . . — — Map (db m84875) HM
Ante-bellum cotton town and center of social and cultural life. Home of 13 generals of Confederacy. Grant's southern advance halted here by Van Dorn's raid, December, 1862. — — Map (db m121844) HM
Built in 1851 for Hugh Craft, a prominent early citizen who came to Holly Springs in 1839 in the ernploy of the American Land Company. This house is locally recognized as the first of the "big houses" during the town's initial affluence preceding . . . — — Map (db m183939) HM
Born to slave parents in Holly Springs on July 16, 1862, Wells' life
epitomized the freedom struggle for African Americans following the
Civil War. When her parents and an infant brother died in the Yellow
Fever outbreak of 1878, Wells raised her . . . — — Map (db m169992) HM
Born the eldest child to Elizabeth and James Wells, she grew up in Holly Springs, and attended Shaw University, now Rust College. She was a reformer who insisted on economic and political resistance to oppression. She became head of a household at . . . — — Map (db m136680) HM
A distinctive artist whose "cotton patch blues" had a hypnotic quality, David Kimbrough, Jr. (1930-1998) was born in Hudsonville and played actively at clubs in the Holly Springs area beginning in the 1950s. During the 1990s recordings by Kimbrough . . . — — Map (db m247554) HM
The Martyn Mission was established here
in 1825 by the Presbyterian Church as a
mission to the Chickasaw. The mission
included a school under the direction of
Rev. William Blair (1791-1873) and his
wife Susan, who taught about thirty
students. . . . — — Map (db m219956) HM
On November 7, 1862, Gen. John Pemberton reviewed his Confederate troops here. The next day, the army withdrew to a defensive position behind the Tallahatchie River. Union Gen. Grant's forces arrived on the 29th. After learning that Pemberton had . . . — — Map (db m85129) HM
Located approx. 400 yards north was the Jones-McElwain and Co. Iron Foundry, established 1859. In 1861, the firm was awarded a Confederate contract to produce rifles and muskets. Before any weapons were made, Holly Springs was threatened by Union . . . — — Map (db m85130) HM
The railroad came to Holly Springs in 1856 at the urging of Harvey W. Walter, a Holly Springs attorney. The town, located on the main route between New Orleans, Chicago, and New York, was halfway between New Orleans and St. Louis and boasted one of . . . — — Map (db m199991) HM
Elected Sheriff of Marshall County in 1979. Osborne Bell was loved by many and is remembered for his friendliness and fairness to all. His political career began in 1967, when he was elected and served three terms as County Coroner (1967-1979). The . . . — — Map (db m183935) HM
R.L. Burnside (1926-2005) reigned as North Mississippi's most celebrated blues artist in the 1990s after alternative rock audiences across the country and overseas joined traditional blues aficionados in embracing his exuberant, spirited Hill . . . — — Map (db m247524) HM
Holly Springs's first Rosenwald School was
built here ca. 1925 for the education of
African American students. Five teachers
taught students through the eighth grade.
Students attended either Rust College or
Mississippi Industrial College to . . . — — Map (db m170277) HM
Estab. 1866 as Shaw Univ. for the education of freed slaves by Miss. Methodists and the Freedman's Aid Society. Renamed 1890 to honor Richard Sutton Rust, Methodist clergymen, educator and abolitionist. — — Map (db m116157) HM
Front
In 1960 Rust College students, under the leadership of President E. A. Smith, boycotted the segregated HollyTheater, a protest that in 1962 evolved into a Rust chapter of the NAACP. The chapter offices were installed by Medgar . . . — — Map (db m116163) HM
Home of distinguished 19th century woman writer, who pioneered in dialect stories. Served as secretary and inspiration to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. — — Map (db m85126) HM
Grant's long and vulnerable railroad supply line to Holly Springs originated in Columbus, Kentucky, and ran outh along the Mobile & Ohio and Mississippi Central railroads. On December 19, 1862, Brigadier General Nathan B. Forrest's Confederate . . . — — Map (db m183931) HM
General Van Dorn advised Colonel Griffith of the Texas Brigade: "Take care that you do not find a hornet's nest at the square!" Griffith led his brigade westward down Depot Street (Van Dorn Avenue) to the Town Square, ushered by Rebel yells and the . . . — — Map (db m173867) HM
Near the Salem Street bridge over the Mississippi Central Railroad Van Dorn's cavalry column divided into three attacking parties. The first moved to subdue the Union cavalry at the Marshall County Fairgrounds. The second attacked the infantry . . . — — Map (db m200172) HM
The Rosenwald School and the W.T. Sims High
School were the first public schools for African
Americans in Holly Springs. The W.T. Sims
High School was built here in 1953 on land
purchased from Mississippi Industrial College.
In 1960, the school . . . — — Map (db m170279) HM
Built in 1859 by master architect Spires Boling for Harvey W.
Walter. In a combination of architectural styles, Gothic crenelated
octagonal towers flank the central Classic Greek Revival portico.
Both styles were detailed in iron cast at the . . . — — Map (db m200082) HM
Here prior to Civil War lived Edward Cary Walthall, statesman, lawyer, Confederate Brigadier General and United States Senator from 1885 to 1898. He is buried in this city. — — Map (db m84883) HM
Residence of W.J.L. Holland, who gave his quarters and his life during the yellow fever epidemic of 1878. The benevolent Holland died while chairman of the relief committee. — — Map (db m85133) HM
In November 1862, Col. Albert Lee's cavalry and Gen. Charles Hamilton's infantry division led the Union advance down the Mississippi Central R.R. Here, at Lumpkin's Mill, Lee's men met Col. William H. Jackson's Confederate cavalry. After a spirited . . . — — Map (db m102632) HM