Paulding, Mississippi

Paulding
Unincorporated community
Paulding

Location within the state of Mississippi

Coordinates: 32°1′51″N 89°2′15″W / 32.03083°N 89.03750°WCoordinates: 32°1′51″N 89°2′15″W / 32.03083°N 89.03750°W
Country United States
State Mississippi
County Jasper
Time zone Central (CST) (UTC-6)
 • Summer (DST) CDT (UTC-5)

Paulding is an unincorporated community in and one of the two county seats of Jasper County, Mississippi.[1] It is the only unincorporated county seat in Mississippi. It was named in honor of Revolutionary War hero John Paulding.

Paulding was settled in 1833 and was named for John Paulding, a local citizen who aided in the capture of the British spy, Major Andre, the British Adjutant who conspired with Benedict Arnold in the betrayal of West Point, New York during the Revolutionary War. [2]

Paulding once had a population of over one thousand and was even called "the Queen City of the East." It had an initial courthouse that was built locally, but that facility burned in 1932. Still, Paulding remains one of the two county seats for Jasper County, Mississippi. Soon after reconstruction, a railroad was to be built through Paulding but the refusal to pay for the railroad locally led to the railroad being built through the western portion of the county instead. Bay Springs, Mississippi, the other current county seat of Jasper County became the new location for the railroad. A new, much larger courthouse and significant development, when compared to the lack of any substantial new development in Paulding, naturally ensued. [3] [4]

Now Paulding's obviously smaller courthouse and shared government facilities, along with the absence of any industrial or commercial development, demonstrate not only the effect of the railroad decision but many different, subsequent decisions regarding roadways, commerce, and other factors that left Paulding significantly isolated but for the remaining courthouse business. Although the split circuit initially had real merit given the eastern/western separation of Jasper County by roadways and other natural isolation of largely unincorporated lands, as early as 1935, a road was built directly between Bay Springs (west) and Rose Hill (in the east, just north of Paulding) that certainly mitigated many of the arguments for a slpit-county seat. However, obviously, even that decision for the roadway to pass through Rose Hill rather than Paulding even led to further, ongoing isolation. Local politics and, to some lesser degree, racial politics played a factor in maintaining the status quo. The intent to maintain a small-town environment certainly played a part to the decisions made locally. Still, even now the full scope of reasons that led to the community's isolation is a matter for debate. Still, it is clear that in its history a long series of external or at least partially external decisions that would be seen as good or bad luck, dependent upon your point of view, were required to change the certainty of growth believed to be in its future even after the civil war. [5]


Notes

  1. ↑ "Paulding, Mississippi". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey.
  2. ↑ http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~msjasper/paulding.htm
  3. ↑ http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~msjasper/paulding.htm
  4. ↑ http://www.co.jasper.ms.us/courthouses.html
  5. ↑ http://www.co.jasper.ms.us/courthouses.html