Meadville, the seat of justice of Franklin County, is located near the center of the county, and has a population of two hundred and fifty. The Franklin Journal was the first newspaper published in this county. It was issued in the summer of 1866 by one Crawford, who was a deaf mute. After several changes in ownership it became known as the Franklin Banner, and was published under that name by a son of Judge McGee for three years, until the death of the publisher. The Franklin Herald was established at Hamburg in 1886. In. 1890 P. C. Thompson bought the material and took it to Knoxville, and there published the Southern Progress until the latter part of that year, when it was removed to Garden City, where it is still issued, with C. P. Thompson as editor, and P. C. Thompson as manager.
Hamburg, on the Louisville, New Orleans & Texas railroad, in Franklin County, has a population of one hundred and fifty. Roxie, south of Hamburg, on the same line, dates its history from 1885, and has a population of two hundred and twenty-five.
Knoxville, on the railroad still farther south, has a population of one hundred and fifty. The county seat was at first located at Franklin, which was two and a half miles west of the site of Meadville. Early churches of this county are mentioned elsewhere.
Back to: Mississippi Counties, Cities and Towns, 1891
Source: Biographical and Historical Memories of Mississippi, Goodspeed Publishing Company, 1891