Appalachian Community Histories – Como, Panola County: Railroads, Camp Como, Civil Rights, and the Birth of Hill Country Blues
Along the railroad tracks of northern Mississippi, the small town of Como has preserved a history that stretches from the Chickasaw homeland and the development of cotton plantations to the arrival of the railroad, the hardships of the Civil War, and the rise of one of America’s most distinctive musical traditions. Located in Panola County, Como developed during the nineteenth century as an agricultural and commercial center where farmers, merchants, railroad workers, and local families depended upon a growing network of transportation and trade. Although its population never approached that of Mississippi’s larger cities, the town became an important gathering place for the surrounding countryside and eventually gained recognition for its historic architecture and musical heritage.
Much of Como’s early history remains visible in the buildings along Main Street, where brick storefronts, old churches, and former commercial properties recall the years when cotton shipments and railroad passengers sustained the local economy. Other parts of its story are preserved in less obvious places, including nineteenth-century land records, historic maps, federal documents, and recordings of African American musicians who carried traditions from one generation to another. Together, these records reveal a community shaped by the ambitions of early settlers, the labor of enslaved and free African Americans, the changes brought by transportation, and the determination of residents to maintain their identity through periods of economic and social change.
Before Como: The Chickasaw Homeland and the Opening of Panola County
Long before Como appeared on a railroad timetable or county map, the land surrounding the future town formed part of the homeland of the Chickasaw people. Their territory extended across much of northern Mississippi and into neighboring regions, where communities maintained agricultural settlements, hunting grounds, trading relationships, and political institutions long before the establishment of Mississippi as a state in 1817.
During the early nineteenth century, the expansion of American settlement placed increasing pressure upon the Chickasaw Nation. White settlers and land speculators sought access to the fertile land of northern Mississippi, particularly as cotton production became one of the most profitable agricultural enterprises in the South. President Andrew Jackson’s Indian removal policies accelerated this process, and in October 1832 representatives of the Chickasaw Nation and the United States concluded the Treaty of Pontotoc Creek. The agreement provided for the sale of Chickasaw lands in Mississippi and became part of the process that ultimately forced the removal of most Chickasaw residents to Indian Territory west of the Mississippi River.
The consequences were enormous for the region that would become Panola County. Land previously held by the Chickasaw Nation was surveyed, divided, and opened to purchasers, allowing settlers from other Southern states to establish farms, plantations, and new communities. The Mississippi Department of Archives and History preserves land office records from the Chickasaw Cession dating from 1834 to 1846, including maps and ownership information that document this transformation.
On February 9, 1836, the Mississippi Legislature established Panola County from lands opened following the Chickasaw treaties. The county would eventually develop two seats of government, Sardis and Batesville, while numerous smaller communities emerged along roads, rivers, and transportation routes. Como was among the settlements whose future would be determined by these early changes in land ownership and the growing importance of cotton agriculture.
The development of the region, however, cannot be understood solely through the experiences of its landowners. Mississippi’s cotton economy depended heavily upon enslaved African Americans, whose forced labor supported the plantations and helped generate the wealth that encouraged additional settlement. Even as communities such as Como later developed commercial districts, schools, and churches, their nineteenth-century foundations remained closely connected to an agricultural system built upon slavery and the displacement of Native peoples.
Dr. George Tait and the Early Settlement of Como
One of the most important individuals associated with Como’s beginnings was Dr. George Tait, a physician and landowner who came to northern Mississippi during the period immediately following the Chickasaw land cession. According to the historical research compiled for the Como Commercial Historic District’s National Register nomination, Tait first traveled from Georgia in 1832 to examine the newly available lands, spending several months in the area before returning home.
After marrying, Tait returned to Mississippi with members of his family and established himself in the region that would eventually become Como. By 1840, he had acquired the land on which much of the future town would stand, and in 1844 he constructed a residence that became closely associated with the developing settlement. His interests in agriculture and landownership would influence the arrangement of the community for decades.
The original settlement of Como was not located precisely where its historic downtown stands today. Instead, it began farther west along an established stagecoach route, where a small community developed around a post office. Local historical accounts preserved in the National Register nomination explain that the settlement received its name from Lake Como in Italy, reportedly because a nearby body of water reminded early residents of the famous Italian lake. Although the explanation survives through later local histories rather than a verified contemporary naming document, it reflects the tradition by which residents remembered the community’s beginnings.
During these early years, the stagecoach route provided a connection to other settlements and markets, but it was the arrival of a new form of transportation that would determine Como’s permanent location. As railroad construction expanded across Mississippi during the 1850s, communities situated along the tracks gained opportunities that older roadside settlements could not always match. For a landowner such as Tait, the proposed railroad offered the possibility of improved agricultural transportation while also threatening to disrupt the arrangement of his property.
The Railroad That Created Modern Como
In 1856, the Mississippi and Tennessee Railroad began developing the route that would transform the settlement. According to the National Register documentation, the proposed railroad alignment initially threatened to pass through or near Dr. Tait’s residence, creating a dispute over where the tracks should be placed. Tait, who held an interest in the railroad, was unwilling to see the line interfere with his house or plantation operations and eventually allowed the company to construct its route west of his home.
The agreement included land for the railroad and its depot, and by 1857 a station known as Como Depot had been established. The name connected the new railroad stop with the older settlement along the stagecoach road, but the concentration of transportation activity soon shifted the community toward the tracks. The post office eventually followed, and the earlier stagecoach settlement gradually lost its importance as commercial activity gathered around the new station.
The railroad provided surrounding farmers with a more practical means of transporting their products to distant markets, especially cotton, which became one of the dominant commodities moving through the area. A loading platform at the depot served agricultural shipments, while merchants and tradesmen recognized the advantages of locating their businesses near the station.
Tait initially resisted the development of a substantial town around the railroad, and the National Register research indicates that he was reluctant to sell commercial lots during his lifetime. Following his death in 1865, however, his heirs began dividing and selling property near the depot. A road developed along the western side of the tracks, initially called West Railroad Avenue, while commercial lots were arranged to accommodate shops, warehouses, and other enterprises. By the end of the nineteenth century, the street had become known as Main Street.
This arrangement created the physical foundation of modern Como. The railroad occupied the eastern edge of the business district, merchants established their storefronts nearby, and agricultural facilities developed behind the commercial buildings. Residential neighborhoods expanded outward from this central area, giving the community a distinctive pattern that remained visible long after railroad operations declined.
Como During the Civil War and Reconstruction
The establishment of the railroad came only a few years before the American Civil War, and the conflict interrupted the political and economic order upon which northern Mississippi’s plantation society depended. Mississippi seceded from the Union in January 1861, and the years that followed brought military campaigns, transportation disruptions, and the destruction of slavery as a legal institution.
Although the surviving records assembled for Como’s commercial historic district do not establish a major battle within the town itself, Panola County experienced the broader effects of the conflict and the changes that followed. Railroads were strategically important throughout the war because they carried troops, supplies, food, and equipment, making transportation networks valuable to military operations even in communities removed from major battlefields.
The end of slavery brought fundamental changes to agricultural labor and society. Formerly enslaved African Americans sought greater independence, established family and community institutions, and pursued education and economic opportunities during Reconstruction. At the same time, white landowners attempted to preserve their control over agricultural production through new labor arrangements, including tenancy and sharecropping, while political disputes over citizenship and voting rights reshaped public life across Mississippi.
Como’s development as an incorporated community occurred against this background. The death of George Tait in 1865 and the subsequent sale of commercial lots coincided with the years when the region was adjusting to the consequences of emancipation and the war. Despite the considerable difficulties facing agricultural communities during Reconstruction, Como’s railroad location continued to attract merchants and encourage development.
The town was officially incorporated in 1882, marking an important stage in its emergence as a recognized municipality. By then, the original railroad depot had become the center of a functioning community, and the surrounding business district was acquiring the shops, churches, and public institutions associated with a permanent town.
The Growth of Main Street and the Fire of 1895
By the 1880s, Como had developed into a small but active commercial center. The Sanborn Fire Insurance Map of July 1886 provides one of the earliest detailed contemporary views of the town, recording buildings, streets, commercial properties, and the physical arrangement of the business district. The map identifies a community of approximately 400 residents and reveals the importance of general merchandise stores, grocery businesses, lumber facilities, and warehouses connected to cotton and other agricultural products.
Wooden commercial buildings dominated much of the early streetscape, reflecting the construction methods commonly used in smaller Southern railroad communities. These structures provided relatively inexpensive space for merchants establishing new businesses, but they also created considerable fire risks, particularly where buildings stood close together.
In 1895, a destructive fire swept through part of Main Street and destroyed numerous commercial properties. The disaster became one of the defining events in the architectural history of Como because it encouraged the replacement of earlier wooden storefronts with more substantial brick buildings.
By the time the Sanborn company surveyed Como again in February 1897, much of the damaged commercial district had been rebuilt. A surviving group of brick buildings at 219 through 225 North Main Street dates from this period and illustrates the rebuilding effort that followed the fire. Their brick construction, closely aligned storefronts, and decorative details represent the growing prosperity of the town during the closing years of the nineteenth century.
The 1897 map recorded a population of approximately 700, suggesting that Como had experienced considerable growth during the preceding decade. The town’s commercial activity had also expanded beyond the most basic necessities, and its buildings reflected increasing confidence in the community’s economic future.
The importance of this period can still be recognized in the relationship between the surviving storefronts. Rather than developing as an extensive urban business district, Como concentrated much of its commercial activity within a few blocks, creating a compact Main Street where merchants, customers, churchgoers, and travelers regularly crossed paths.
Historic Architecture and the Churches of Como
Como’s historic churches provide some of the most visible reminders of its nineteenth-century development. Among the earliest surviving religious buildings in the surrounding area is Fredonia Methodist Church, constructed around 1848. Located near Como, the church is identified by the Mississippi Department of Archives and History as the oldest surviving church structure in Panola County.
Fredonia Methodist Church combines elements of Greek Revival and Gothic Revival architecture, reflecting a period when rural congregations adapted familiar architectural forms to local building traditions. Its survival provides an important connection to the settlement era before the modern town had fully developed around the railroad.
Within Como itself, Holy Innocents’ Episcopal Church became one of the most architecturally significant buildings. Constructed in 1872 at 311 North Main Street, the church was designed by James B. Cook, an English-born architect associated with Memphis. Its Carpenter Gothic design incorporated the pointed forms and picturesque qualities of Gothic Revival architecture into a wooden church building, creating a structure that stands apart from the surrounding commercial properties.
The church received recognition through the National Register of Historic Places in 1987, reflecting its architectural importance and its place in the development of the community. Its location near the northern end of Main Street also demonstrates how religious institutions became integrated into the commercial center of the town.
Another prominent landmark is Como Methodist Church, constructed in 1912 at 101 North Main Street. The present building was the third Methodist church erected on the site, and its construction represented a significant investment by the congregation. Designed in a Neoclassical style, the church features a substantial brick exterior, monumental entrance, and a prominent dome surmounted by a cupola and cross.
These buildings reveal how Como’s religious and civic institutions changed alongside its commercial development. Smaller nineteenth-century structures gave way to larger and more elaborate buildings as congregations and residents invested in the community’s future, while older churches remained important gathering places for generations of local families.
Agriculture, Commerce, and Everyday Life in the Early Twentieth Century
During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, agriculture remained central to Como’s economy. Cotton and other agricultural products moved through the railroad depot, while warehouses, lumberyards, and businesses supplied the surrounding farms and plantations. As the commercial district expanded, brick buildings increasingly replaced earlier structures, and the town developed services intended to support both residents and travelers.
Historic maps reveal the extent of these activities. Along the street later known as Elder Frank Ward Street, located behind the Main Street business district, warehouses and agricultural facilities handled products before shipment or sale. Sanborn maps document cottonseed storage, lumber operations, livery stables, an icehouse, and other enterprises that illustrate how closely the town’s economy remained connected to agriculture.
Como also possessed facilities associated with a more developed commercial community. A hotel near Holy Innocents’ Episcopal Church accommodated railroad passengers during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, appearing on Sanborn maps through 1918. An opera house, recorded on the 1911 Sanborn map, offered another indication of the town’s social and cultural life, although the building later burned and was not reconstructed.
One particularly significant commercial property was constructed around 1899 at 215 North Main Street. Designed by Andrew Johnson, a Swedish-born architect who had settled in Mississippi after the Civil War, the building reflected the influence of professionally trained architects upon the commercial landscape of smaller towns. Johnson designed houses, churches, depots, and business buildings throughout northern Mississippi, and the Como property became an important surviving example of his work.
The early twentieth century also brought additional public facilities and improvements. A town hall appeared on the 1918 Sanborn map, while a new municipal building constructed around 1935 at 204 North Main Street served as City Hall and housed the fire department. A medical clinic built around 1950 at 103 North Main Street reflected the community’s continuing efforts to provide services locally rather than depend entirely upon neighboring towns.
For residents, these developments made Main Street more than a place of business. It was where agricultural commerce connected with local government, religious worship, medical services, and everyday social life. Even as the town remained small, the concentration of activities around the railroad created a recognizable center of community identity.
Camp Como and the Prisoners of World War II
One of the lesser-known chapters in Como’s history occurred during World War II, when the United States established a large prisoner-of-war camp approximately two miles south of the town. Known as Camp Como, the installation occupied roughly 1,300 acres and became one of Mississippi’s principal facilities for holding enemy prisoners captured during the conflict.
Following the Allied victory in North Africa in 1943, thousands of German and Italian military personnel were transported to the United States, where prisoner-of-war camps were established under military supervision. Mississippi became an important destination because its existing military installations, railroad networks, and agricultural labor needs made it suitable for housing and employing prisoners.
Camp Como was one of four major prisoner-of-war base camps in the state, alongside Camp Clinton, Camp McCain, and Camp Shelby. Historian John Ray Skates Jr., writing for the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, reported that Camp Como initially housed approximately 3,800 Italian prisoners. The Italians were subsequently transferred elsewhere, and a smaller number of German prisoners occupied the facility.
Prisoner-of-war camps operated under the international rules established by the Geneva Convention, which regulated the treatment, housing, food, and employment of captured military personnel. Enlisted prisoners could be assigned labor that did not directly support military operations, and many prisoners in Mississippi worked in agriculture, forestry, and other civilian occupations.
The state’s agricultural economy created a substantial demand for workers, particularly during periods when military service drew American laborers away from farms. Prisoners assigned to agricultural work helped cultivate crops and harvest cotton, while the larger camp system developed smaller branch installations in various communities.
For Como, the presence of Camp Como created economic activity that extended beyond the boundaries of the military installation. The National Register research indicates that the camp helped sustain existing businesses and encouraged continued railroad use during the war, although it did not produce substantial new commercial construction within the historic district.
The camp closed after the war, and its property was eventually sold. Its buildings disappeared from the local landscape, but the facility remains an important reminder that even a relatively small Mississippi community could become connected to events taking place thousands of miles away in Europe and North Africa.
African American Life, Education, and the Struggle for Civil Rights
Como’s history also includes the experiences of its African American residents, whose labor, religious institutions, educational efforts, and cultural traditions contributed substantially to the community’s development. During the nineteenth century, enslaved African Americans worked within the agricultural economy that supported the region. Following emancipation, Black families continued to participate in farming, local commerce, and community life while confronting the restrictions imposed by segregation and racial discrimination.
The history of education in Panola County demonstrates how deeply these divisions affected everyday life. Public schools throughout Mississippi were segregated for generations, and the separation between white and Black students remained entrenched well into the twentieth century.
A particularly revealing primary source is the United States Commission on Civil Rights report Southern School Desegregation, 1966–67. In discussing the problems associated with school segregation, federal investigators specifically identified the North Panola County school system, explaining that high schools were located in both Sardis and Como, only a few miles apart, yet students were transported between the two communities according to racial patterns. White high school students living in Como generally attended school in Sardis, while virtually all Black high school students living in Sardis were transported to Como.
The federal report demonstrates that segregation shaped more than classroom assignments. It affected school transportation, community relationships, access to educational institutions, and the daily routines of families living within a short distance of one another. The broader struggle to dismantle these arrangements continued through the late 1960s, as federal courts and civil rights organizations challenged the unequal educational systems that had operated throughout Mississippi.
Voting rights became another important issue in Panola County during the civil rights movement. In the early 1960s, African American residents faced discriminatory registration practices that prevented many eligible citizens from voting. Federal intervention eventually challenged those restrictions, and voter registration efforts gained momentum as local organizers and national civil rights organizations worked to establish greater political participation.
Como itself became part of one of the most significant civil rights demonstrations of the decade. In June 1966, James Meredith began his March Against Fear, intending to walk from Memphis, Tennessee, to Jackson, Mississippi, to challenge racial intimidation and encourage African American voter registration. After Meredith was wounded by a gunman near Hernando, other civil rights leaders continued the demonstration.
On June 9, 1966, approximately 200 marchers traveled from Senatobia to Como, following the route that connected communities across northern Mississippi. The next day, marchers continued southward from Como through Sardis toward Batesville, where local residents joined the demonstration and participated in voter registration activities. The march ultimately became a major national event involving prominent leaders, including Martin Luther King Jr., Stokely Carmichael, and Floyd McKissick.
These events placed Como within a larger struggle over citizenship, education, and equality. Although the town’s railroad buildings and historic churches provide much of its visible nineteenth-century heritage, the civil rights records reveal another essential part of the community’s history, one shaped by the experiences and determination of residents seeking changes that would affect future generations.
The Music of Como and the Rise of Hill Country Blues
Beyond its agricultural and railroad history, Como became internationally recognized through the musical traditions of northern Mississippi. The region surrounding Como, Senatobia, and nearby rural communities developed a distinctive African American musical culture that included blues, gospel singing, string bands, and fife-and-drum performances. These traditions were passed among relatives, neighbors, churches, and community gatherings long before many of the musicians received commercial recognition.
One of the most important figures associated with Como was Mississippi Fred McDowell, a guitarist and singer whose performances became central to the history of hill country blues. Born in Tennessee, McDowell eventually settled near Como, where he worked in agriculture and continued performing music for friends, neighbors, and local gatherings.
His playing emphasized powerful rhythms, repeated musical patterns, expressive singing, and the use of a slide to produce the distinctive sounds associated with his guitar. Although McDowell had developed his abilities over many years, he remained largely unknown outside the region until folklorist Alan Lomax visited northern Mississippi in 1959.
During September of that year, Lomax, accompanied by British folk singer Shirley Collins, recorded musicians in and around Como as part of a larger effort to document traditional American music. The recordings captured McDowell’s performances and those of other local musicians whose work represented different aspects of the region’s musical heritage.
The Library of Congress preserves documentation of these sessions in the American Folklife Center, including seven tapes identified with recordings made in Como during September 1959. The collection includes blues, spirituals, instrumental music, children’s songs, and interviews, with performances by Fred McDowell, Ed Young, Miles and Bob Pratcher, Rosalie Hill, and others.
These recordings are especially valuable as historical evidence because they preserve the voices and performances of people whose musical lives had often received little attention from commercial record companies or mainstream cultural institutions. Rather than documenting only polished studio productions, the sessions captured traditions that had developed in homes, churches, fields, and community gatherings over generations.
McDowell’s recordings eventually brought him considerable recognition during the folk and blues revival of the 1960s. He performed for wider audiences, recorded additional albums, and influenced later musicians, including Bonnie Raitt. His religious song “You Got to Move” also reached a broader international audience when the Rolling Stones recorded their version for the 1971 album Sticky Fingers.
Despite his eventual fame, McDowell remained strongly associated with Como and the surrounding countryside. He died in 1972 and was buried at Hammond Hill Missionary Baptist Church cemetery north of the town. His contribution to American music was formally commemorated in Como when a Mississippi Blues Trail marker was dedicated in his honor in May 2009.
Fife-and-Drum Music and the Musicians of Northern Mississippi
The musical heritage of Como extends beyond Fred McDowell. Northern Mississippi developed a distinctive African American fife-and-drum tradition in which performers combined the high-pitched melodies of handmade cane fifes with powerful rhythms produced by drums. The music frequently accompanied picnics, dances, and social gatherings, linking musical performance with the community traditions of the surrounding countryside.
The tradition has roots reaching into the nineteenth century, and scholars have connected its development to African musical practices and the adaptation of military instruments following the Civil War. Over time, local musicians created a regional style that remained an important part of community celebrations even as commercial blues and popular music changed around them.
Among the musicians associated with the Como area was Otha Turner, a farmer and fife player who became one of the best-known representatives of the tradition. Turner was closely connected with the community of Gravel Springs, where his annual picnics and musical gatherings helped preserve the performances of local fife-and-drum bands.
Another important musician was Napolian Strickland, a lifelong resident of the Como and Senatobia area who performed on the cane fife, harmonica, guitar, and other instruments. His work attracted the attention of folklorists and documentary filmmakers during the second half of the twentieth century, helping introduce the musical practices of northern Mississippi to audiences far beyond the region.
The Hemphill family also played an important role in the area’s musical culture. Jessie Mae Hemphill, born near the Panola and Tate County line in 1923, came from a family with deep connections to blues, gospel, string-band music, and fife-and-drum performance. Her grandfather, Sid Hemphill, was recorded by Alan Lomax in 1942, providing another important example of the musical traditions that flourished in the region.
These musicians helped demonstrate that Mississippi’s musical history was not confined to the better-known communities of the Delta. The hills of northern Mississippi maintained their own distinctive sounds, and Como became closely associated with an American musical heritage that developed through the everyday lives of local people.
Stark Young and Como’s Literary Heritage
Como also contributed to American literary and cultural history through Stark Young, a novelist, playwright, painter, teacher, and theater critic who was born in the town on October 11, 1881. Young grew up in a family connected to the social and agricultural world of nineteenth-century Mississippi, and his early experiences in the region influenced his later understanding of Southern life.
After spending part of his childhood in Como, Young moved with his family to Oxford, Mississippi, where he continued his education. He later attended the University of Mississippi and Columbia University, beginning a career that would take him into teaching, writing, theater criticism, and the arts.
Young eventually became recognized as an important figure in twentieth-century American cultural life. His literary work frequently examined Southern society, family relationships, tradition, and the tensions between the past and the modern world, while his criticism contributed to the national discussion of theater and literature.
Although much of his professional life unfolded away from Como, his birthplace remains significant in understanding the town’s broader cultural contributions. Alongside its musicians, churches, and historic commercial buildings, Young’s association with Como demonstrates that the influence of the small Panola County community extended into several different areas of American culture.
The Decline of Railroad Commerce and the Preservation of Historic Como
During the twentieth century, changes in transportation gradually weakened the economic foundation upon which Como had developed. Automobiles, improved highways, and the increasing importance of trucking altered the movement of passengers and agricultural products, reducing the dependence of smaller communities upon local railroad stations.
Como experienced these changes directly. According to the National Register documentation, passenger rail service ended during the 1950s, followed by the termination of freight service during the 1960s. With the railroad no longer serving the town in the same capacity, the depot that had originally determined Como’s location gradually lost its practical purpose.
During the 1970s, the railroad depot was demolished, removing one of the most important structures in the history of the community. The loss was particularly significant because the depot had served as the center of Como’s development since 1857, influencing the location of Main Street, commercial buildings, warehouses, and nearby neighborhoods.
Yet even after the depot disappeared, much of the surrounding business district survived. Brick buildings constructed in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries remained standing, preserving the appearance of a railroad town whose commercial center had changed comparatively little in its basic layout.
Recognition of this architectural importance eventually led to the nomination of the Como Commercial Historic District to the National Register of Historic Places. Prepared by David Preziosi of the Mississippi Heritage Trust in March 2008, the nomination documented the community’s commercial, religious, residential, and agricultural buildings, examining their historical significance and architectural characteristics.
On July 10, 2008, the Como Commercial Historic District was officially listed in the National Register. The designation recognized the town’s importance as an example of commercial development associated with railroad transportation and agricultural trade, while also acknowledging the architectural variety preserved within its compact downtown.
The district includes properties along North Main Street and Elder Frank Ward Street, extending between Oak Avenue and Church Avenue. Its surviving buildings represent different stages of Como’s growth, from the nineteenth-century churches and brick storefronts to municipal buildings and facilities constructed during the twentieth century.
Preservation does not mean that the town has remained unchanged. Businesses have opened and closed, buildings have been altered, and the occupations that once supported the local economy have shifted. Nevertheless, the continued survival of the historic commercial district allows residents and visitors to recognize the relationship between the built environment and the community’s past.
Remembering the History of Como, Mississippi
The story of Como is one of transportation, agriculture, architecture, music, and community life, but it is also a history of change and the different experiences of the people who lived through it. From the Chickasaw homeland and the settlement of Dr. George Tait to the establishment of the railroad depot in 1857, the town’s beginnings reflected the larger forces transforming northern Mississippi during the nineteenth century.
The railroad brought new opportunities for merchants and agricultural producers, while cotton commerce supported the buildings and institutions that developed around Main Street. Fires, war, economic transitions, and changing transportation networks altered the community, but many of the structures associated with its most prosperous years remained part of the local landscape.
Other chapters of Como’s history reveal connections that reach far beyond Panola County. Camp Como linked the community to World War II and the experiences of thousands of Italian and German prisoners. The civil rights movement placed the town along a nationally significant route in the struggle for voting rights, while federal school records documented the inequalities that local families experienced during the years of segregation.
Perhaps the town’s most enduring national contribution came through its musical heritage. Fred McDowell, Otha Turner, Napolian Strickland, the Hemphill family, and other musicians carried forward traditions that might otherwise have remained unfamiliar to audiences beyond northern Mississippi. Through recordings, performances, and the continued recognition of hill country blues, the community became associated with a musical culture of lasting importance.
Today, Como’s history is preserved through its churches, its surviving downtown, its archival records, and the music that continues to connect the region with the wider world. The railroad depot that first drew the town together may have disappeared, but the streets that grew around it remain evidence of an earlier era, when a small station helped create a community whose history would extend far beyond the tracks.
Sources & Further Reading
Preziosi, David. “Como Commercial Historic District.” National Register of Historic Places Registration Form. Mississippi Heritage Trust and National Park Service, March 14, 2008. https://www.apps.mdah.ms.gov/nom/dist/199.pdf
Sanborn Map Company. Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Como, Panola County, Mississippi. July 1886. Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division. https://www.loc.gov/item/sanborn04449_001/
Sanborn Map Company. Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Como, Panola County, Mississippi. September 1892. Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division. https://www.loc.gov/item/sanborn04449_002/
Sanborn Map Company. Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Como, Panola County, Mississippi. February 1897. Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division. https://www.loc.gov/item/sanborn04449_003/
Sanborn Map Company. Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Como, Panola County, Mississippi. November 1902. Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division. https://www.loc.gov/item/sanborn04449_004/
Sanborn Map Company. Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Como, Panola County, Mississippi. January 1918. Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division. https://www.loc.gov/item/sanborn04449_007/
Mississippi State University Libraries. “Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps of Mississippi.” Special Collections, including eight historical editions for Como from 1886 through 1925. https://www.library.msstate.edu/specialcollections/collections/miss/sanbornmaps
Mississippi Department of Archives and History. “Fredonia Methodist Church.” Historic Resources Inventory, Panola County. https://www.apps.mdah.ms.gov/Public/prop.aspx?id=24832&view=facts&y=1176
Skates, John Ray, Jr. “German Prisoners of War in Mississippi, 1943–1946.” Mississippi History Now. Mississippi Department of Archives and History, September 2001. https://mshistory.mdah.ms.gov/issue/german-prisoners-of-war-in-mississippi-1943-1946
U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. Southern School Desegregation, 1966–67. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1967. https://www.usccr.gov/files/historical/1967/67-010.pdf
National Archives and Records Administration. “James Meredith and the March Against Fear.” National Archives, African American History Research Resources. https://www.archives.gov/research/african-americans/black-power/sncc/march-against-fear
Frederiksen, Joel D., and Michael Winslow. “Mississippi Collections in the Archive of Folk Culture.” Revised July 2015. American Folklife Center, Library of Congress. https://wwws.loc.gov/folklife/guides/Mississippi.html
Mississippi Blues Commission. “Fred McDowell.” Mississippi Blues Trail. Mississippi Development Authority. https://msbluestrail.org/blues-trail-markers/fred-mcdowell
Mississippi Blues Commission. “Fred McDowell Featured Marker.” Mississippi Blues Trail, May 2009. https://msbluestrail.org/featured-fred-mcdowell
Mississippi Blues Commission. “Otha Turner.” Mississippi Blues Trail. Mississippi Development Authority. https://msbluestrail.org/blues-trail-markers/otha-turner
Mississippi Blues Commission. “Napolian Strickland.” Mississippi Blues Trail. Mississippi Development Authority. https://msbluestrail.org/blues-trail-markers/napolian-strickland
Langdale, Jay. “Stark Young.” Mississippi Encyclopedia. Center for the Study of Southern Culture, University of Mississippi, July 11, 2017. https://mississippiencyclopedia.org/entries/stark-young/
Johnson, Greg. “Jesse Mae Hemphill.” Mississippi Encyclopedia. Center for the Study of Southern Culture, University of Mississippi, July 11, 2017. https://mississippiencyclopedia.org/entries/jessie-mae-hemphill/
Lindsey, Odie. “Otha Turner.” Mississippi Encyclopedia. Center for the Study of Southern Culture, University of Mississippi, July 11, 2017. https://mississippiencyclopedia.org/entries/otha-turner/
Mississippi Department of Archives and History. “Chickasaw Cession Land Office Record Books, 1834–1846.” Collection Z/2077. Mississippi Department of Archives and History. https://finding.mdah.ms.gov/manuscripts/z2077000
Mississippi Department of Archives and History. “Panola County Records, 1836–1975.” Series 2050, County Records. Mississippi Department of Archives and History. https://finding.mdah.ms.gov/government-records/pano
“History of Panola County, Compiled from Reminiscences of Oldest Citizens.” The Southern Reporter, May 28, 1909. Hays-Ray-Webb Collection, Mississippi State University Libraries. https://scholarsjunction.msstate.edu/mss-webb-collection/267/
The Panola Star. Panola, Mississippi, 1856–1857. Chronicling America, Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/item/sn87065521/
The Daily Panola Star. Sardis, Mississippi, 1871–1872. Chronicling America, Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/item/sn87065516/
Civil Rights Movement Veterans. “Civil Rights Movement History and Timeline, 1966.” Civil Rights Movement Veterans Archive. https://www.crmvet.org/tim/timhis66.htm
Vanderbilt University Special Collections and University Archives. “Otha Turner Collection.” Collection Guide, 1970–2007. Vanderbilt University Libraries. https://collections.library.vanderbilt.edu/repositories/2/resources/2086
Shaw, John. “Preserving the Black Fife and Drum Tradition at Gravel Springs.” The Delta Review, September 22, 2015. https://thedeltareview.com/artists-2/preserving-the-black-fife-and-drum-tradition-at-gravel-springs/
Appalachian Regional Commission. “Mississippi.” Appalachian Regional Commission. https://www.arc.gov/appalachian-states/mississippi/
Author Note: Como’s history is a reminder that even small Mississippi communities have contributed to the larger story of America through transportation, agriculture, civil rights, and music. I hope this article helps preserve the stories of the people, places, and traditions that shaped Como while encouraging readers to explore its remarkable historical legacy.