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Thanks to Denise Wells for this information

Lowndes County was established in January 1830 and named in honor of the late William Lowndes.

The act creating the county appointed Samuel Lauderdale, Wm. H. Craven, Charles H. Abert, George Good, Titus Howard, Edward B. Randolph and Henry Greer, Sr., commissioners, charged with the duty of locating a permanent site for the seat of justics of the county. The same act provided for the holding of the probate, county and circuit courts at the town of Columbus until the courthouse at the permanent county site should be erected. The first house erected where the city of Columbus now stands, was a log cabin in 1817, by Thomas Moore. It was, however, two years later before there was any town. In the meantime, Thomas Sampson, who subsequently served as probate judge, William Viser, S. Roach, and William Poe, Silas M. McBee and others came to the place, and at a meeting of the citizens, at the suggestion of Mr. McBee, the place was given the name of Columbus. About the same time Thomas Townsend, Green Bailey, Dr. B. C. Berry, Silas Brown, Hancock Chisholm, Wm. Connover, William Furnandes and others became citizens of the place. In the latter part of the year 1819, Townsend and Bailey, Gid Linsecum, Wm. Vizer and R. C. Haden opened stores in Columbus. Gideon Linsecum was the first postmaster, having been appointed in 1821. The town was incorporated in 1822 with William S. Moore as Mayor.

Among the early settlers were Richard Barry, the father of Col. William S. Barry, who represented the county and was Speaker of the House of Representatives, and president of the Secession Convention in 1861, and colonel of the Thirty-Fifth Mississippi Regiment during the late war; B. F. Beckwith, C. E. Leech, Geo. W. Sanders, Joseph Boschell, an intelligent and bright journalist, who was lamed for life in a duel with Hon. Volney E. Howard; the Rev. Geo Shaeffer, a methodist minister; Nimrod N. Davis, James Brownlee, John T. Connell, Dr. W. Humphries, the father of Captain W. W. Humphries, who served the county with distinction as State Senator; and now one of the leading lawyers of the city of Columbus; A. S. Humphries, who accumulated a large fortune and has numerous descendants in that vicinity; Captain M. W. Neilson, of the United States army; Captain Edward B. Randolph, of the United States navy. A little later came John A. Borders, John Ledbetter, John Dally, Wm. Weaver, John Gilmer, Dunstan Banks, a wealthy planter, the father of that genial gentleman and journalism, Captain Robert W. Banks, now of the city of Meridian; Major T. G. Blewett, the father-in-law of Hon. Jas T. Harrison; John Morgan, Jas. Pronell.

Among the early physicians were Dr. S. B. Malone, Gideon Linsecum, and Dabney Lipscomb.

About 1835 or 1836 came the late Hon. Jas. T. Harrison, one of Mississippi's most distinguished lawyers. Upon his first appearance at the bar, he was by his professional brethren regarded learned, accurate and able. His reputation grew with years, and before he reached the meridian of life he was considered among the foremost lawyers of the commonwealth. He was elected to the Confederate Congress, and after the cessation of hostilities in 1865, elected to the United States Congress, but with the other representatives of the State at that date was denied his seat. He left sons and daughters. His son, Hon. Jas. T., who bears his name, a lawyer by profession, has twice represented the county in the Legislature, and is the senior member of the excellent law firm of Harrison & Landrum. The eldest daughter of Mr. Harrison, an accomplished and brilliant woman, is the wife of General Stephen D. Lee.

Tilghman M. Tucker, who represented the county in the Legislature and was Governor of the State in 1842. He was the father-in-law of Hon. William McWillie, of Madison county. Hon. George R. Clayton, who served as Circuit Judge in the district in which he resided, was at one time the Whig nominee for Governor, and a member of the Secession Convention of 1861; Dr. S. S. Franklin, who was a graduate of Yale College, and also a graduate in medicine. He was the father of Thomas B. and C. S. Franklin, now merchants in the city of Columbus. W. L. Cozart, Thomas C. Billups, the father of Majors John S., Joseph, Carleton and General Saunders Billups, the latter a brigadier general of National Guards, all of whom are men of integrity and highly respected; Harrison Johnston, a man of enterprise and strength of character. He is the founder of the cotton factory at Columbus, which will increase the population of the city, and promises to be a profitable investment.

John Moore, James I. Moore, James Whitfield, at one time State Senator, and by reason of his being President of the Senate, succeeded to the Governorship occasioned by the resignation of Governor John A. Quitman, and served as such for a short time; Joseph B. Cobb, who served the county as a member of the Legislature, and a gentleman of more than ordinary literary attainments; Hon. Wm. L. Harris, who served his judicial district as circuit judge, and was for a number of years Judge of the High Court of Errors and Appeals; Col. Hunter Sharp, the father of Gen. Jacob H. Sharp, who has twice represented Lowndes county in the Legislature, one term Speaker of the House, and was a Brigadier-General in the Confederate army; Richard Evans, a distinguished lawyer, and at one time a member of the Legislature, the father of Geo. A. Evans, who, like his father, is a lawyer of ability, now of the firm of Arnold & Evans, of Birmingham; Richard Evans was also the father-in-law of Col. W. C. Richards, a gentleman widely known in business circles, and was a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1890; General Peter B. Starke served for a number of terms in both branches of the State Legislature, and prior to the war was one of the nominees of the Whig party for Congress, was a Brigadier-General commanding cavalry during the war; Col. Argyle Campbell, a lawyer, and the father of Mrs. Dr. S. S. Franklin and Arthur L. Campbell; General Jeptha V. Harris, who commanded a brigade of State troops during the seige of Vicksburg; Jas. W. Harris, Geo. E. Harris, who were brothers of Judge Wm. L., and General Jeptha V. Harris; Thos W. Harris, who was judge of the probate court, the father of the late Col. Thos W. Harris, a lawyer of most excellent ability, and the father-in-law of Gen. W. S. Featherston, of the city of Holly Springs; Benjamin Long, Dr. Thos. Jones, Dr. Spillman, Henly S. Bennett, who was circuit judge of that judicial district and subsequently a member of Congress; Edward C. McEwen, Eli Abbott, Capt. Chas Abert, who organized in 1837, the military company known then, as now, as the Columbus Riflemen; W. W. Wade, Neil Bartee, Hardy Stevens, John A. Franklin, Chas. McClaren, C. R. Crusoe, Esq., a lawyer of intelligence, and for a long time partner of Jas. T. Harrison; Judge Nat Goodwin, Dr. Robert F. Matthews, a prominent physician and accomplished gentleman; Beverly Matthews, Esq., a man of large brain and intelligent lawyer, who served as Adjutant of the Second Mississippi Regiment in Mexico; John Brownrigg, father of Dr. John Brownrigg, who was a Brigade Surgeon in the Confederate army, and now a prominent physician of the city of Columbus; Col. Jas O. Banks, a gentleman widely known in business affairs; Andrew Weir, of the Commercial Bank, and W. B. Winston, of Planter's Bank; Henry Buchanan, J. B. Ervin, and G. Frazee, who were merchants. Hon. A. Murdock, who was several times a member of the Legislature from the county, and for a number of years President of the Mobile & Ohio Railroad, a gentleman of large information, full of energy and enterprise.

The county site, Columbus, is regarded as one of the handsomest little cities in the southern country. It has fine schools, attractive church buildings, and a remarkably intelligent population.

There are several villages in the county--Crawford, Artesia and Caledonia.

The principal streams are Tombigbee river, Buttahatchie and Luxapalila Creeks.

The railroads are the Mobile & Ohio, with a branch road from Artesia to Columbus, and the Georgia Pacific.

The county embraces a great deal of rich prairie lands that are regarded as productive and very valuable.

Lowndes county has 196,671 acres of cleared land; average value of which, as rendered to the assessor, $11.92 per acre; total value of cleared lands, including incorporated towns and cities, $2,533,526.

The population of this county, as shown by the census report of 1890: Whites, 5,940, colored, 21,105; total, 27,045.