The New International Encyclopædia/Jackson (Mississippi)

JACKSON. The capital of the State of Mississippi and the county-seat of Hinds County, 180 miles north of New Orleans, La.; on the Pearl River, and on the Illinois Central, the Queen and Crescent Route, the Yazoo and Mississippi Valley, and other railroads (Map: Mississippi, E 6). Besides the State Capitol, the Governor's mansion and United States Government building are prominent structures. There are also Millsaps College (Methodist Episcopal), founded in 1892, Bellhaven College for young ladies, State institutions for the deaf and dumb, the blind and the insane, James Observatory, and the State Library. Among the points of interest are the remains of fortifications erected at the siege of Jackson in 1863, a Confederate monument, and a statue of Jefferson Davis. The city is in a cotton-growing section, and has considerable trade, and valuable manufactures, including cottonseed products, lumber and lumber products—staves, hubs, spokes, etc.—brooms, machinery, plows, and harrows. The government is administered, under a revised charter of 1882, by a mayor, biennially elected, and a unicameral council. Settled about 1830, Jackson was incorporated ten years later. During the Civil War it was occupied in 1863 by General Grant, and in 1864 was for the most part destroyed by General Sherman. Population, in 1890, 5920; in 1900, 7816.